Katia is a small cat and an avid hunter. I think that she is unable to catch full-grown rats as they are simply too big for her but she is an ace at catching unwary rat pups as they venture out into the world for the first time and unfortunately, she isn't a quick and efficient killer of prey as the other cats are, she brings them home alive to torment until they finally die and the sound of infantile rat shrieks is more than I can bear so I end up taking them away from her and putting them out of their misery. Here she is looking at me with her if you take away my toys, I will only go and get more look
Any wild animal that simply sits in your hand like this is already severely injured and I'd prefer it if they didn't grow into adult rats so I just have to do my duty and end the suffering sooner. Today, she must have caught an entire litter, she managed to bring five inside and only one was already dead so I spent my day as a mass-murderer of four rat pups. They were probably about 3 weeks old. Sigh...
The things this cat makes me do: if it's not putting half-dead mutilated lizards into the freezer so that they die quickly, it's knocking rats unconscious and then putting a heavy weight over the ribcage so that they stop breathing.
Of course, the dead ratlings are not wasted, Ms P spent her day snacking on them in between meals. She goes hunting too, but happily eats anything else that the others catch and bring into the house. She's getting fat again.
First posted here on my blog in WeKu
