Wanted: Kitten/ adolescent cat/ stone cold killer

[butcher bergs]

Currently searching for a feline for my daughter's upcoming birthday........a birthday present for my daughter that will eventually help daddy with the chipmunk population.





Looking for a kitten up to 1-2yr old cat.

Must have claws.


Yes, I am familiar with Humane Society, SPCA, etc.

[e30addict]

So you're looking for coyote food....

[Falko]

I've found the issue with cats, while they are one of mother earth's most efficient killing machines, they are only interested in the hunt when they are hungry. Feed them regularly and they are as effective at killing vermin as using a vice for a mouse trap. Now there are a priceless few out there that kill for the sake of killing, you can't teach that. Those are the good ones.
Good luck with finding a good one...

[dontpanic]

About 15 years ago, a feral cat showed up. It was really young and really underweight, so we started feeding it.

In retrospect, that was a great decision. The cat grew fat and content and was a darned good pet.

It also never lost the urge to kill. It would line up its trophies in the side yard for us to admire - mice, moles, chipmunks, doves... all headless, too.

[butcher bergs]

So you're looking for coyote food....

Not if it's a ninja!

[TwelveGaugeSage]

[PhilB]

I've found the issue with cats, while they are one of mother earth's most efficient killing machines, they are only interested in the hunt when they are hungry. Feed them regularly and they are as effective at killing vermin as using a vice for a mouse trap. Now there are a priceless few out there that kill for the sake of killing, you can't teach that. Those are the good ones.
Good luck with finding a good one...

That's not true in general. That used to be the working theory for farm cats -- they wouldn't feed them, on the hypothesis that hungry cats would catch more. But someone decided to actually do a study and see if that was true, and it wasn't. Well-fed and healthy cats were more successful at catching rodents.

My personal experience is that it's the attitude of the cat. I free feed all my cats; they can eat when they like. Some of them don't hunt, and some of them do, and the deciding trait is whether they like to hunt or not. Kind of like people.

The one among the current batch who is into it, hunts all the time, regardless. Funny thing was that as a kitten/young cat, he had no interest. Probably didn't even know it was a thing to do. Then, when he was about a year old, my daughter's snake decided it didn't like one of its mice. Snakes do that sometimes; inexplicably turn their nose up at a particular mouse. So we went out to the big lawn, with the mouse, and the young cat, and set them down together, and it clicked in the cat's head. He killed that mouse, and ate it, and has been an enthusiastic hunter for ten years since.

PhilB

[Pigman]

Some breeds do to tend to be better mousers...but really its not always the case some do, some don't

[Falko]

That's not true in general. That used to be the working theory for farm cats -- they wouldn't feed them, on the hypothesis that hungry cats would catch more. But someone decided to actually do a study and see if that was true, and it wasn't. Well-fed and healthy cats were more successful at catching rodents.

My personal experience is that it's the attitude of the cat. I free feed all my cats; they can eat when they like. Some of them don't hunt, and some of them do, and the deciding trait is whether they like to hunt or not. Kind of like people.

The one among the current batch who is into it, hunts all the time, regardless. Funny thing was that as a kitten/young cat, he had no interest. Probably didn't even know it was a thing to do. Then, when he was about a year old, my daughter's snake decided it didn't like one of its mice. Snakes do that sometimes; inexplicably turn their nose up at a particular mouse. So we went out to the big lawn, with the mouse, and the young cat, and set them down together, and it clicked in the cat's head. He killed that mouse, and ate it, and has been an enthusiastic hunter for ten years since.

PhilB

Interesting. My experience is we had a barn full of barn cats and we fed them regularly but not much. We had two cats at the house (at, not in) that were tamer and were fed better. Those two had nothing to do with hunting. The barn cats on the other hand would hunt in packs and bring in carcasses of all types. I get there is more to the correlation than just the feeding, but the barn cats were veracious hunters.

[Petorius]

Not sure how feasible it is to deliberately select a good hunter. We picked one of our cats from a shelter based on snuggliness. 4 years later he is still snuggly as fuck, but turns out he is an absolute monster with prey. Its like a switch goes off when he sees something move that shouldnt, and we're off to the races.

[MUZ720]

Of the two cats we have. The young one who is very active and who demands constant attention just chases the mice, doesn't kill them . The older cat who just eats and sleeps all day. Will turn into the the lion king after the young one gives up and will ripe the thing to shreds.

[joeswamp]

Have to agree it's pretty random. My neighbor used to have once of the nicest/friendliest cats I'd ever met, she would walk up to little kids on the sidewalk and let them pet her. However she would turn stone-cold killer in their back yard, and significantly lowered the local rodent/bird population.

[joshk1025]

Of the two cats we have. The young one who is very active and who demands constant attention just chases the mice, doesn't kill them . The older cat who just eats and sleeps all day. Will turn into the the lion king after the young one gives up and will ripe the thing to shreds.

My family had several excellent mousers, but I think the best hunting cat I've ever run across belonged to my best friend as a kid. This cat was both massive and really fat, had to be close to 30 pounds. Moved like molasses most of the time, especially going up steps. He would find a perch up high and just wait, then drop like a blob of doom on any bird or rodent that got close. He liked to use his food bowl as bait. Really funny because they had a fast, skinny younger cat that couldn't catch shit.


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[Uncle Snake]

As a teenager we had a tri-color cat named Kingfish. He was a big boy, around 18lbs but no fat to speak of. I watched him take a seagull off the house across the street's roof by waiting on the garage roof and leaping once the bird got to the edge of the house roof. He got his claws in and they both rolled off the roof to the lawn. Then the blood flew.....

Working on my bike in the garage one afternoon, Kingfish came in with a small squirrel he'd killed. He came up to me, looked me in the eye, dropped the squirrel and smiled! No shit he just smiled at me! I patted his head and he bolted. Came back later with a mouse and smiled again.

I thought it was pretty awesome at the time but while typing this out it occurred to me that he was probably just stretching his jaw after carrying his victims for who knows how far. Dammit!

[gixxer72]

As a teenager we had a tri-color cat named Kingfish. He was a big boy, around 18lbs but no fat to speak of. I watched him take a seagull off the house across the street's roof by waiting on the garage roof and leaping once the bird got to the edge of the house roof. He got his claws in and they both rolled off the roof to the lawn. Then the blood flew.....

Working on my bike in the garage one afternoon, Kingfish came in with a small squirrel he'd killed. He came up to me, looked me in the eye, dropped the squirrel and smiled! No shit he just smiled at me! I patted his head and he bolted. Came back later with a mouse and smiled again.

I thought it was pretty awesome at the time but while typing this out it occurred to me that he was probably just stretching his jaw after carrying his victims for who knows how far. Dammit!

That’s awesome. We’ve got a cat that kills everything it can, but seagull is not on the list. Yet.

We’ve had insane squirrel population this year in Maine. Coincidentally I had picked up a Gamo 1400fps pellet gun. The little fuckers die with some crazy theatrics when hit, cheap entertainment.

[butcher bergs]

...and now I have a cat in my house.




I respect all animals but have always been a dog guy so this...….this will be an adjustment. I've lived with cats, had a few as kid but have never taken on the responsibility of caring for one so never got to understanding the psychology, the body language, what the meows mean.


We ended up going to Laconia SPCA on Friday and by coincidence they were having some type of adoptathon for the Black Friday weekend....Dog Friday and Caturday.

We cruised around for about 45min checking out the kittens and cats and found a 7mo old tabby, Edward, that my daughter was interested in. We were informed by the SPCA volunteer that we were 3rd in line for this little dude so we filled out an application and kept on cruising. Not sure what exactly happened but around 5 minutes later the volunteer walked up to us and started our interview questions for Edward's new home. 5 minutes after that, cat meowing on the car ride home...and all before noon!

Call it day 3 now and so far so good. He was social with us within an hour of arriving home and we have been opening up the house slowly to him as he gains his confidence in his new surroundings.



Here he is guarding the laundry...ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

[MUZ720]

Awesome,
We pickup up a Tabby( Harley) two years ago. Great cat she thinks she's a dog , plays fetch with her toy mouse. ( maybe that's why she wont kill real ones) Tabby's get big and she's moody sometimes but overall a Great breed, very affectionate ..
Congrats.

[e30addict]

Cats are awesome. I'm so glad I took a rescue home a few years ago.

[Uncle Snake]

Appears to be a good choice Paul.

[breakdirt916]

Nice...an NESR “call to advise” thread with follow through...congrats

[Paul_E_D]

Annnnnnd, you hva posted your first cat pic. This is how the internet happened.

[nt650hawk]

nice.

i was going to suggest one of these for the mice.

[butcher bergs]

My stone cold killer is having some problems enjoying the great outdoors.



Of course he is!




Over the last few weeks we've been helping Edward to get used to the exterior of the house. We started him on the patio for an hour and have been building from there. Unfortunately he consistently chooses to hunker down somewhere and starts meowing.

In an effort to help him feel comfortable, I've been working on all my broken stuff in the driveway so I've pretty much been laying on the ground or outside. He'll have none of it. Yesterday he spent most of the day near (or on) the front steps or doing an Army crawl in the garden bed that spans the width of the front of the house....meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow

I'm hoping he starts seeing the birdies and chippys running around and maybe something will click....

[Falko]

I'm sorry, but you most likely have a pussy cat....

[butcher bergs]

Just heard from mumma and it sounds more promising that when I had posted earlier.

She opened the slider to the patio and apparently "he went outside himself this morning and trotted off..."