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I think I just figured out why cats hunt. Think about it for a second. They are not a predator, they just bloody sleep, eat, sleep some more, then eat some more, then purr a bit and that about it. Hence they naturally get shit bored and get to a state of mind I call “let’s f..k some shit up” and off they go hunting, because they of the boredom…

A year ago we added to our family a little tubby, female, from one of the many rescue places around. I love cats, I won’t go into the debate cats vs dogs, which one is best, etc, because it’s a matter of personal opinion and preference. I love cats for many things they do, or don’t do… anyway.

I’ve been closely following her boredom to hunter progress, since the unfortunate idea in her mind is to bring whatever she catches into the house to show off. There’s a certain level of conflict of interest between our idea and her idea of sharing her hunting spoils.

It all started prett low. She came in one evening, laid something on the carpet, and started licking her self mad. I was rather surprised when I saw a… slug. I mean. Well, what so you say to that. It’s not fast, it’s not nice to be handled (licking herself mad), a lot of… pros on catching and bringing such thing in, but I guess for someone just starting their padawan training, it’s a result… disgusting haha

I’ll skim over the fact that level 2 of her hunting adventures was an appalling improvement from slugs. Guess what’s faster than slugs and can be easily caught by doing nothing much… an earthworm…

I believe the 3rd level of hunting, which I find is an immense improvement from the first attempts, was when she brought a weta. A weta I’d basically a grasshopper. As you can see, this is an improvement. Much faster… than a slug ffs… and not slimy to handle, and I gather a lot more fun to chase, since they actually move… I was rather surprised to see the little weta putting up a proper fight, I watched her play with it doe a few seconds. The cat would try to side swipe it with a paw, as if to encourage an escape, and then lean in nose toward it, and at that point, the weta would use its back legs to attack her nose. She would back of that. Quite funny. Anyway, tame it off her and release outside, the usual.

Level 4 hunter. Now, I am not a fun of wetas. I am not a fun of crawling things in general. This almost got the kitty banned for life… this time, there was a lot more chasing involved, a lot more movement, so I curiously got up to see what is it this time. I was not impressed, and impressed at the same time haha it was way faster than a weta, but far less… house pet friendly I would say. A cockroach. 3 to 4 cm, flat, brown, fast, scattery cockroach. Yak.

Somewhere along these hunting adventures, things have gone wrong however. We were all really disappointed and upset when she brought in a big butterfly… catch, let it outside, saved… I will not count this as progress.

Level 5 is an improvement in skills and all, but again, black mark on her for the choice of pray in my books. She brought in so many of them, little brown lizards. I managed to somehow find a way for them to simply come into my palm, well with few attempts each time of course, as if they knew I’m there to help. Each time needing to fend of the eye locked on cat next to me trying to get at them.

Level 6. This one was well, rather unpleasant. As much as I don’t mind her torturing the cockroaches, or bringing in wetas, the morning she brought this in was a little shock. I woke up as I heard a lot of movement and scatter, and was certain our cat brought something she hadn’t before, got out of bed and tried to attend to the rocus with the use of my mobile screen light. First thing I saw was… feathers. Then I saw her throwing a small bird around. It was dead. She definitely did not kill it by any kind of bite or something, as there was no blood. So not even sure she found it dead and brought it into the house, or caught it alive and… played with it to death. Yes I know. Pretty cruel.

Level 7 was a step up. The bird she brought in was alive. Again, woke me up with the movements and I am pretty sure I heard the bird peep. I was pretty quick put of bed and took the bird off her. I was a little tired, but it rested for a moment and then disappeared. I had to close the carlton flap to make sure our hunter doesn’t follow me.

Level 8. This happened today. She normally sleep through the night by my legs, popping in and out in the night, but is right there in the morning. Today however she was not with us in the morning. She appeared a little late as if to check on us, had her breakfast and was out minutes later. We had our breakfast, then my partner left the house and I went doe a shower. When I left the shower, I heard a meow and some movement in our bedroom. She was clearly trying to get something from under a towel I had on the floor. I cleared some space for myself and was preparing for what might fall out or come out once I lift the towel up. A little mouse fell out, and the cat was straight onto it. I was a little surprised, and had a quick thought of “this is… new” and then run to grab a container from the kitchen and come back hoping she doesn’t kill it in the meantime. It is a little weird watching the little mouse run for her life, when the cat just goes for her and once on her, just stops to let it run away again. As it was all happening under our bed, I couldn’t quite reach for a catch. To my surprise, when I set my square container lifted off the floor on one edge so that I can close it, the mouse run straight at me, bumping into the inside of the container allowing me to put all 4 walls on it and take it outside and let go.

Current record of saves is rather high, and I’m hoping we can keep this up, although, I’m the designated saviors for the creepy crawlies and the nasties, I don’t think the ladies in the house have the courage to save them when it comes to it haha so not sure what happens if I’m not there.

Still, despite a clear conflict of interest between us and the cat what to not bring into the house (none of the above or any future ideas), I absolutely love my cat.