New cat's first week outside...

[snags]

He's come in on three separate occasions today and dropped a small leaf, then a large leaf then a small stick at my feet, looked up at me, mewed then run back outside. Are these 'gifts'? Can we expect small birds, rodents and the occasional toad next?

[ladyalex]

We got a dead squirrel once (grey squirrel) . How he got it through the cat flap still puzzles me. It was well dead and he was tucking in to it in my bedroom.
That was the worst....except perhaps for the wood pigeon....

[ladybirder]

snags he's gorgeous and that looks like a beautiful 'Northern' wall he's on. Please do all us bird lovers a favour before the fledglings are about next spring and put a great big bell on him. Not 100% but at least it gives the birds a chance.

[4candles]

Live baby rabbits behind the freezer are fun...

The only mice we have in the house are those brought in by the cats. One took up residence inside the washing machine, and made an enormous, beautiful nest out of the sound insulation.

[China Doll]

Sorry ladybirder, he won't be wearing a bell. However he wears a tag with his details on and that does make a noise.

[EvianBaby]

My cat started off with little mice but after not too long I ended up scared to walk in the front door after work. It often look like a massacre had occured. Bloody, guts, feathers, half eaten bits of animal every! He's not allowed out in the day anymore.

Have fun!

[albaqwerty]

If we put anything noisy on our cats' collars, they would come home collar-less and in a huff.

[mccfluff]

murph now has six bells

ha ha

[China Doll]

Eric already lost his first collar and tag :-/

[islasmum]

He looks gorgeous! hope that you don't have neighbours with a pond next door, like we used to have - my Tigger made it's his life's work to bring in their frogs - still alive! and that was through a first floor window - fortunately for most of the time my sister and family lived next door, and although the pond was netted, Tigs still managed to get them out, and bring them in.

[wolf63]

I have indoor cats - part of me thinks that they should be out playing with the traffic but when it comes to 'gifts' I am glad that I will never be given a gift of half a mouse or bird.

Have you been introduced to the 'delights' of a furry alarm? Being woken at three or four in the morning to be told "I'm bored" or "Feed me fatso" is cute to start with - but I am way past that stage. I just try growling and going back to sleep.

Eric is a beautiful young lad - you both must be very proud of your little boy.

I am away to turf my two off my/our/their bed and watch TV - they sit and watch that sometimes.

wolf - mother to Frankie and Princess Merlin

[B00]

Urgh, thank God my new kitten will be an indoor one.

[Nibble]

CD and snags, have you had him microchipped? much safer than a collar, we'd do it every time.

[micmak]

Boo, I thought you said getting your kitten was on hold?

[bensmum]

He does look lovely - I had a ginger cat called Eric once, it's a great name. Mine couldn't catch a cold though. Subsequent cats have fetched in various rodents (more often alive), pigeons, rabbits and frogs. You have all that to come :D

[B00]

It passed our minds Micmak, but then we thought sod it, we just wont eat for a month- sorted, we can afford it....just.

;-)

[boxtops]

cat food's quite tasty, B00, if you put some mash on the top...

[micmak]

You can eat cheaply when you have to. I'm pleased for you.

[snags]

Nibble... yes, Battersea chip, neuter and vaccinate all their cats prior to release...

[Eve]

I had an extra special one on mothers' day...woke up from a doze on the sofa to two rather smug looking cats sat either side of a dead magpie in my lap!

Oh and the "dead pidgeon" who only chose to move when I picked it up to put it outside...nearly went round to the neighbours to try and explain the scream!

The live mouse incident was challenging. Cat ran in and upstairs only to pop it on the pillow on the spare bed and there was a me, cat, mouse stand/stare off before it legged it under the bed! Spent ages talking at it down the back of the bed, trying to see if it would move and if it was still alive until a nose poked up and I realised I've been trying to coax a rolled up sock out!

Welcome to cat slavedom! I love them to bits, got one curled up with me on the sofa purring her head off. They're definitely worth it :)