New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[dancing cloud]

Following on from some of the posts in the cats and curfews thread,

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=88554

what's the strangest thing your pet's brought in?

 

Mine was definitely the bat that Puddy brought to eat on the living-room carpet ! Still no idea how such a lazy-bones could catch something that fast. Bat-suicide by cat, perhaps ?

 

One of our dogs used to bring in hedgehogs too. Totally unharmed, she'd carry them in very gently and watch till they uncurled themselves, before giving them a nudge with her nose to make them curl up again. Hours of entertainment !

 

So what odd presents have your furry friends given you?

[Olly]

The late lamented Lonnie who was with me for 17 years was a ferocious hunter. One Easter Sunday I looked out of the kitchen window, to see her approaching with (very appropriately) a rabbit in her mouth! The rabbit was so big that it was dragging on the ground, she wasn't a large cat. Amazingly, it was alive and apparently unharmed and we were able to get it from her and release it. She was not pleased.

 

A few days later I went into the garage, and found a rabbit-skin neatly flayed and laid out on the floor! She'd obviously decided not to risk us taking this one of her.

[Space Chick]

Thomas our last cat was quite an amazing and varied hunter.... The two most memorable was the live mole he put in my bed, and the dead squirrel he'd brought us (which ironically he brought us the day after we'd been watching a River Cottage and they'd been eating squirrel... I'd remarked to OH that I wouldn't mind trying it... Thomas was on my lap at the time.... Maybe he was trying to oblige, who knows )

[Redwing]

my cat lives indoors but she has developed a thing for sponge scourers and brings them to us, sometimes a sopping wet one from the sink

 

she went through a phase of bring me chicks from the brooder in the kitchen (always alive and uninjured!) I would lay in bed thinking 'that cheeping is getting louder.....' we have now swapped to a brooder with plastic sides not bars!

[munkee1965]

My old cat Sam once bought me a seagull home. The amazing thing was that he had carried it over a 6ft gate and then got it through the cat flap.

[Griffin]

Saffron (missing in action for over ten years now) once came home with an Aunt Bessies yorkshire pudding. She had a habit of breaking and entering through open windows, I assume that's how it came to be hanging from her gob. Another time she dragged the back end of a rabbit through the cat flap, no idea where it's front end went. Saffron was a tiny little thing, it must've got too heavy to carry it all

[The Dogmother]

One of my old cats used to bring in newts from the neighbour's pond, Rosie was little at the time and referred to them as 'dinosaurs'

 

Phil's folks' cats bring in baby rabbits and young pheasants on a regular basis, but they live on a farm.

[scubababe]

One of my cats brought someones prized parakeet home. It was gorgeous & looked very expensive

[chuckmum6]

Our cat has some how dragged a whopping great wood pigeon through the cat flap, we also found a huge Khoi carp still flapping in the kitchen one morning. The strange thing was we put it in a bucket of water, covered it and weighed it down, ready to try and find who owned it. Half an hour later it had vanished!

 

When I was about 10, one of our cats attached itself to a roast chicken, I remember my mum holding the cat with the chicken firmly held by the cat and a right old struggle going on! The same cat eat the toad spawn I had, the problem was that once the cat started licking it, he couldn't stop as it is all joined together, the cats eyes nearly popped out!

[Gertie]

I'm glad my cats have not brought me a prized parakeet, was it alive?

 

The oddest thing my cats ever brought me was a huge green dragon fly. Sadly it was dead but it was totally unharmed.

And we've had 2 dead wood pigeon in the garden last week. I'm not convinced my cats could do that. Again, they appeared unharmed other than a tiny spot of blood.

[Griffin]

 

When I was about 10, one of our cats attached itself to a roast chicken, I remember my mum holding the cat with the chicken firmly held by the cat and a right old struggle going on!

 

That reminded me of the time my mum took the Christmas turkey out of the oven and our cat Ezzie launched himself at it The look of horror on my Aunts face was priceless We're used to finding cat hairs in our food so it didn't put us off, she had no pets so didn't feel as relaxed about Ezzies behaviour

[Groovychook]

I've had a squirrel bombing around my dining room and a rabbit behind my washing machine

 

A couple of my cats are committed rabbit murderers but thankfully, polish them off outside.

My tabby, Bert however, is a very silly boy who delights in bringing live critters in the house...

[scubababe]

Unfortunately they did kill the parakeet..shame...it was gorgeous! The other amazing thing they bought home was a sparrowhawk!!!

 

They tend not to bring anything 'live' back as they are cheesed of with me 'liberating' the folly back to the wild

They just tend to leave mouse heads around which thankfully the puppy cleans up for me

[The Dogmother]

Yes, I often find mouse paws or heads on the front doorstep; the dogs soon dispose of them.

[Gertie]

You just wonder how they manage to catch or find such unusual things. A sparrow hawk

 

It's my Mogu that kills daily (thankfully just mice mostly). Last Saturday I went downstairs when I got up and she was pacing around the sofa. I removed her to another room, and armed myself with a large jug and started to move the sofa. When I looked down there was a little brown mouse right next to my feet. I caught it in the jug and set it free in the potting shed. It seemed unharmed. Normally she eats them. If I find a live one I have to set it free. I even prized one out or her jaws once as it was obviously still alive. Thankfully she usually kills them immediately and eats them!

[dancing cloud]

 

This thread has really made me giggle this morning! The adventures related here make Puddy's bat seem very tame. I particularly like the cat-v-mother for the chicken !

 

Reminded me of when I was about six and my cat Sooty helped herself to some of the fillings from the party buffet vol-au-vents. We didn't have enough to just throw them out, so we had to quickly "redistribute" a bit of filling from all of the others into the empty cases (and redistribute Sooty away from the kitchen!).

[bluekarin]

The list of 'presents' our cats have brought in;

 

Two squirrels - one on the sofa one morning and one brought up and dragged under our bed another morning, and both dead.

 

A large live pigeon which my DS found one morning when he got up flapping around the living room and the cats watching. Oliver (who is my profile pic and who is sadly no longer with us) somehow dragged the bird through the cat flap and considering her struggled to just get himself through, the mind boggles how he got him and it through

 

Mr Yo-Yo used to bring in frogs, usually a live a squeaking. One was flat on the hallway carpet and we thought it was dead, until it puffed itself up and hopped away to a corner.

 

Ollie also brought in Yo-Yo's collar when he lost it out and about one day

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Our last cat Marmite regularly brought us birds, mice and whatever other creatures she could massacre, in various states of alive-ness. Some were totally past saving, others very much alive and leaping.

 

Our smaller Maine Coon, Pippi, is an expert hunter of birds, unfortunately, but is not silly enough to bring them home since we always take them from her. Her enormous ginger friend Angus can only dream - the birds always see him coming and fly away before he can get anywhere near them.

 

Pippi's real forte is capturing stray socks and pants, usually airing on a radiator, dragging them around the floor and then hiding them in a corner or under a cushion. The sight of her trotting around with a pair of boxer shorts in her mouth is quite something. She has brought them in from the garden too, when high winds blew the washing off the line; luckily they all belonged to us

[Guest]

My friends live in FRance and their 2 cats regularly catch Lizards - but the y detach their tails and scuttle off! The tails carry on twitching for up half an hour!

[Minnie&Moose]

When he was younger our cat Max used to nip down the road to the pub and help himself to sausages and chicken wings from the barbeque - you always knew he'd got something when he came in at high speed with his head down! His other party trick was coming home wearing bits of other people's cat flaps Fortunately at the grand old age of 16 he's very much a sofa-bound cat now and most of the neighbours have forgiven him his yobbish past

[Groovychook]

When he was younger our cat Max used to nip down the road to the pub and help himself to sausages and chicken wings from the barbeque - you always knew he'd got something when he came in at high speed with his head down! His other party trick was coming home wearing bits of other people's cat flaps Fortunately at the grand old age of 16 he's very much a sofa-bound cat now and most of the neighbours have forgiven him his yobbish past

I like the sound of Max... he sounds very spirited!

Glad to hear he's enjoying his retirement!

[Egluntyne]

My sister's cat once dragged a fully grown male pheasant in through the cat flap. It made a heck of a mess in the kitchen and took a while to catch.

[Chucky Mama]

[abwsco]

Ours just to bring us birds, both dead and alive and mice as well as the odd piece of chicken -lol Worst once though was neighbours canary. She didn't bring that in but left it's feet and yellow feathers all over the front lawn. Cue my Mum, me and sis picking every feather up before neighbours realised it was missing

[jasperaliceuk]

Some great stories here - our best was a green woodpecker brought through the cat flap alive. I took that to the local animal sanctuary. We have had a pigeon brought in which I'm convinced the three cats plucked between them as there were enough feathers in the kitchen to stuff a pillow! Frogs used to be a nightly occurence, with them brought on to the bed. Now we seem to be down to mice and occasionally a rat. Found one yesterday in front of the Eglu WIR door, not a mark on it but very dead and stiff. Can only assume the cat put it there because it certainly wasn't there in the morning.

 

Sue