I've gotta problem with my cat...

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Anonymous
Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
edited June 2014 in Life After Breast Cancer
I've got a problem...how do I get my cats to stop hurting little animals?  Birds, frogs, and OMG Baby Rabbits!!!  No, I don't care about the moles, but I do care about , sweet little itty bitty baby rabbits.I have a baby rabbit who lives in a hole under the sidewalk to our front door.  And I have found Miranda...my largest senior kitty..."playing" with the rabbit several times. The rabbit appears not to be hurt and not to be too afraid.  This has been going on for several days.  Makes me nervous.But I have been praising Miranda each time I find her playing with the bunny and not hurting it.  I think it may actually be her "friend."  A few years ago she cornered a baby bunny under our deck, behind the lattice work, and I crouched outside helpless as I watched what I thought would be hopeless carnage.  I begged Miranda to leave "Sissy" alone, trying to get her to understand that I considered the bunny the equivalent of our small, weak other cat.  And she did!!!  She backed off, came out from the under the deck and came inside.  Praised her profusely!!I'm a very proud Momma today!!!!  Linora
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  • abinneb
    abinneb Member Posts: 550
    edited August 2008

    You might try a collar with a bell - birds can definately hear that and will take off.   I would assume bunnies would too.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2008

    Linora, your cat is beautiful.  I had a cat that very same color many, many years ago, but with long hair.

    As far as cats "hunting" other animals...that's what they do.  My dh used to have to be very rough with our cat, the one that looked like your's, to get him to open his jaws so the baby rabbit could get away.  Cats are very proud of themselves when they capture their "prey."  That's what I've been told.  But we made him ashamed of himself.  We told him that he was NOT hungary..LOL

    The color with the bell sounds like a winner.

    Shirley

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  • iodine
    iodine Member Posts: 4,289
    edited August 2008

    Our cats have done the trophy thing wayyyy too often.  I, too, am good for moles, but birds and chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels, NO WAY.

    They have brought in snakes, too.  Ewwwwww.  We put the cat away and then go after the "catch" to take it back to the woods.  Breaks my heart every time., 

    Have had chipmunks LIVING here, behind the entertainment ctr.  LOL, even gave them names.  They'd get out at night to eat the cat's food!  Eventually we'd get them to go out the door, unless one of the cats caught them first.

    I keep telling myself it's their nature and that's why many people Have cats, but I just hate it.  (also Hate cleaning up the remains of a kill)

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2008

    Iodine....your stories make me laugh!!  We had live chipmunks in the house too....it ended up in a bedroom and my husband and I and another cat spent an hour trying to catch it...by the end of that hour we had caught it but the room was a total disaster!!!
     
    Last week our youngest and smallest cat brought in a live frog and deposited between the covers of our bed!  I think she thought it was a present.  
     
    Baby Bunny has a new home.  We took it to a local nature center last night.  It's going to be caged and looked after for a few days and then re-released.  The lady checked him out stem to stern and he didn't have a single mark on him, despite the fact that Miranda had been "playing" with him for three days and had had him in her mouth frequently...so proud of her for being gentle!!!
     
    I think she probably brought him home as a "pet."  She defended him from the other cats, but I don't think little Baby Bunny was too  happy with the situation.  Surprised 
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  • snowyday
    snowyday Member Posts: 1,478
    edited August 2008

    I taught my cats not to hurt the squirrels when I first moved south, they had never seen squirrels that big before so I called the my babies, and was out of the deck with them every day hollering until they got to the point where they would sometimes lay beside each and even eat beside each other.  As for birds, Emmie is a real birder so whenever she would hurt one or bring one to me I gave her heck and grounded her for two days and everytime she would go to the door or window I would say "no outside you boo boo birds, BAD.  And she learned, but I have to admit that each spring she has to go through this lesson once but then she's good.  She has brough birds in alive that have hidden in my house and it would take forever to catch and release them, all the while I would yell at Emmie.  With rabbits I would do the same thing as with the squirrels stay outside and teach them to get along it does work.  But takes some time and patience,  good luck

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2008

    Well, I thought baby bunny problems were over but I spoke too soon.  Miranda went off and got another one and brought it home during a wild thunderstorm.  She wanted to bring it in the house but we wouldn't let her.

    I think she has decided that this is her pet...her behavior with the bunny is more domination and nurture than predator-prey, and she's an exceptionally intelligent cat and the idea of "being" a pet isn't so far removed from having her own...   We can't go running over the nature center every day, maybe we should let nature take its course.  If we took this one away, then she'd go back to the litter and bring home another one.  Perhaps she'll be gentle and perhaps it will manage to stay alive...I hope so.  Don't know what else to do!

    Snowy, it sounds as though you went to great lengths to communicate with your cat.  I talk to mine and even though I know they can't understand all the words, they do seem to get the gist of things...cats are amazing!!  I think they have great intelligence. 

    Linora 

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