I know this is a dog blog, but I shot this video and I’ve been trying to figure out a time to share it. It seems I’ve had a lot to write about in the almost two weeks since I shot the video.
I was going to link it up to the Tasty Tuesday blog hop and then I figured well……it wasn’t actually tasteFUL.
Let me set the scene.
I had gone home on my lunch to get a quick walk in with the dogs. As I was backing out of the driveway I happened to see the neighbor’s cat just a couple of houses up. The cat appeared to be playing with something. At first I thought it was a leaf, but I quickly realized it was not. I thought it might be a mouse.
I’ve never seen a cat CATCH a mouse before, so I was intrigued. I turned around and started inching my way up the street.
This disturbed the cat, and caused him to stop and regard me suspiciously. I got as close as as could without scaring the cat off. Even still, the cat would stop every so often and stare at me.
I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and sat there with it trained on the cat, at this point I still had no idea what the cat was chasing, until it ran directly at my driver’s door and I realized it was a chipmunk.
The little bobble at the end is when I turned around and said, “Oh shit, where’d they go?” I was afraid they were under the car and I would run over them as I left. As it turned out, they weren’t.
And yes, the cat did catch the chipmunk.
Sorry for the blurry photo, the camera in my cell phone is supposed to be better than my point and shoot, but I don’t agree.
that’s pretty darn cool to see a cat do that. morbid I know, but hey they are hunters too right? I have a very fond memory of mouse hunting with my cat. For real,I went along with him in the snow once when i was little, and I remember watching him listen above the hard snow crust and then pounce on the mice he heard. Very cool, he was an amazing hunter and fighter. Lived a long 13 years for an indoor/outdoor cat, before i had to put him down as he contracted feline aids from one of his fights.
I say it is your blog, share what you want… most likely it will pertain to your life in some way so it is valid 😉
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
That’s what I thought too Anna, I thought how many times growing up did one of my cats bring a mouse in but I never saw the cat actually ‘doing it’s thing.’ I debated on whether it was morbid to post it but like you I thought it was pretty cool to watch it in action. Of course I actually missed the part where the cat caught it…..I just saw the after effects.
That’s pretty cool that you had such a close bond with your cat growing up, and I do agree 13 years for an indoor/outdoor cat is pretty good. I’m sorry that you lost him though….they are with us for such a short time. 🙁
How horrible. I hate that he played with it instead of killing it off quickly. But I guess that’s what cats do. I think I would have chased the cat away and tried to rescue the chippy. Sigh.
I do think that is what cats do, they play with most things. We’ve had a terrible chipmunk problem with them digging holes and tunnels all over our yard, I wouldn’t like to have to kill them myself but I guess I thought of it as survival of the fittest. 🙁 I was actually surprised that I didn’t feel the same way you did. I’m sorry if it upset you.
As you may or may not know, one of my dogs is a notorious killer of birds. He does it in one chomp of his tiny jaws. The cat always looks so disappointed. What a waste of a bird. She could have played with it for a long time .It isn’t cruel. It’s raw nature that we seldom get to experience.
I did not know that Jan, I had a dog once that could leap up and pull a bird out of the air. he did it a number of times. I did find out something about those chipmunks when I shared this video with a co-worker. I should have added that. 🙁 I guess I will put it in Friday’s follow-up post.
When we’re watching nature videos, my husband and I sometimes reflect on how the narration changes depending on which animal is “starring” in the show. One day you watch a show about seals in which the lucky little guy tricks the polar bear and lives to swim another day.
The next day you watch a show about polar bears in which you see how hard the polar bear works to feed her cubs fresh seal meat.
It is a part of nature. But many of us have gotten quite separated from nature.
It’s amazing that you captured that. I guess it won’t bother you a bit that you’ll have one less chipmunk to contend with.
I don’t watch a lot of nature videos for that very reason. I guess somehow, having dealt with rodents in my house and yard, I don’t perceive them in the same way I would perceive a seal being hunted by a polar bear. Isn’t that strange?
You are right it is part of nature and I was just captivated that I could actually watch it taking place, never mind videoing it! The fact that it was a chipmunk was a bonus for me. (Isn’t that awful?)
It is amazing that you caught that on film, and as much as it is a part of nature we don’t like to see, the cat is just doing what comes naturally.
I was fascinated by the process, having never seen it ‘live’ before. The kitty wasn’t so fond of being filmed though….:-)
Chipmunks are usually faster than cats. I wonder if there was something wrong with that chipmunk to begin with?
When Thunder was a pup he was out pheasant hunting and caught a field mouse and swallowed it. No playing for him. 😉
I have no idea because they are fast! My co-worker said it looked like the cat might have caught the chipmunk before, or it could have been injured another way. IF that cat CAN catch chipmunks, I’m thinking of asking the neighbor to borrow it. LOL
OMD I can’t believe he swallowed a mouse!! A friend of mine’s dog swallowed a live chipmunk and promptly threw it back up. LOL
It’s very cool you were able to take this without freaking the cat out. In all my cat’s eight years, I have never once witnessed him hunting anything. I’ve seen the evidence of his activities: the headless birds, the headless mice, the headless owl, the headless muskrat, frogs, etc etc. If it’s missing a head, my cat is to blame. Yet I’ve never caught him in the act. Very sneaky, these felines.
I know that cats are hunters but I don’t understand their preference for toying and tormenting the little creatures they catch 🙁 Tall person rescued a small bird from Barnaby’s jaws recently and saved it. After resting out of Barnaby’s reach it flew off.
OMG – my Mazzie would have been out of her mind because her prey drive is completely off the hook. She wouldn’t have know which of the 2 to go after first!