Warm Barrels Posted April 17, 2009 Report Share Posted April 17, 2009 As I walked home along the parkland trap line this evening. I stopped to light the pipe (yes filthy habit I know) when out of the corner of my eye I noticed the local farm cat and 2 of her kittens comming down the hedgerow towards me they stopped near a small clump of nettle. The female cat called "Brandy" then seemed to place one kitten in the nettle clump and walked toward me with the other some 10yardsfurther along .She then placed this kitten in the side of the hedgerow and went back and disapeared through the hedge and into the wood on the other side. I know that there is a warren with a thriving rabbit population just inside where she went in ...and sure enough out came a rabbit and bolted down the hedge into the nettle clump where the kitten was. At the same time I noticed that a stoat was travelling up the hedgerow towards the clump of nettle (disturbed inside by "Brandy" no doubt) ..BUT and as it got to the nettle clump the kitten pounced out and caught the stoat.A struggle followed whereby the cat "Brandy" came out and joined in the fray.She dealt with the stoat and off all 3 cats went toward the farm with it. I walked toward the clump of nettle and found to my suprise that the little kitten had indeed killed the rabbit ... Stoat must taste nicer then I thought. I used the rabbit for trap bait further along the trap line.One less stoat anyway. Anyone heard or seen such behaviour before? I have seen fox do this but not cats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Fudd Posted April 17, 2009 Report Share Posted April 17, 2009 (edited) yep seen cats at the old house do similar stuff on rabbits and even tried it on a pheasant once, even had one (called ginge) who used to follow me out hunting, first time i shot a rabbit with the 10/22 she nicked it on me, i went to pick it up and she got there before me, rabbit was nearly as big as her but she carried it all the way back to the house so i let her have it Edited April 17, 2009 by babbyc1000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted April 17, 2009 Report Share Posted April 17, 2009 What? you let her have it, nmeaning, you shot the cat, or let her have the rabbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhiannonBW Posted April 18, 2009 Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 When I lived at home with my parents I had a fluffy cute cat called Bilbo. Despite his prettiness he was a mean hunter and would regularly bring back squirrel tails as some sort of trophy, laying them out in a line by the back door. He would also sit patiently above rabbit holes, waiting for his next meal to pop it's dinner out. Had to take him to the vets once after he'd been in a scrap with a fox. Sounds like Brandy might have been training her youngsters in hunting techniques, a bit like when my cat brings me a live bird home to 'practice' on. Rhiannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldrick Posted April 18, 2009 Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 We have two hard-as-nails farm cats here, both hateful and stroppy little ****. They do a very good, proactive job with rabbit and rodent control, and will always clean up any dead pigeons left in hard to reach places in the barns. They tend to leave the chickens and pheasants alone. Worming the cats is a predictably violent business, me wearing welding gauntlets, and usually involving stuffing the cat into a duffle bag so that only its head is protruding, then forcing medication down its throat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countryman Posted April 18, 2009 Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 We have got 2 farm cats and the weirdest thing i've ever seen them do was to take on an adder. One of them was at the front and the other was at the back of the snake. They then took it in turns to hit the snake as it struck for the other. I darent intervene at the time as I think one of them would have got bitten if I had broken their tactics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted April 18, 2009 Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 I use to shoot a farm that had any number of cats living in the barns, you couldn't get near them and they were quite wild. A couple of times a year the farmer and I would go into the woods next to the farm and poke out the squirrels dreys. Some of the cats use to follow us and when we shot a squirrel, they would be on it before we could get to it. On these outings it was not unusual for us to shoot up to 10 squirrels, but we never picked one up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warm Barrels Posted April 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 Sounds as though the cats will have a go at anything then,and teach their offspring the way forward. In Scotland when I last visited my good friend "Orkney Gun" up there he mentioned they have a few wild cat roaming the glens there? These I presume are ferral cats quite a different breed from our domesticated moggy.will keep my eye on Brandy though as she may be thinking of a pheasant/patridge lunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Fudd Posted April 18, 2009 Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 What? you let her have it, nmeaning, you shot the cat, or let her have the rabbit na, i let her have the rabbit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldrick Posted April 19, 2009 Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 Sounds as though the cats will have a go at anything then,and teach their offspring the way forward. In Scotland when I last visited my good friend "Orkney Gun" up there he mentioned they have a few wild cat roaming the glens there? These I presume are ferral cats quite a different breed from our domesticated moggy.will keep my eye on Brandy though as she may be thinking of a pheasant/patridge lunch. Scottish Wildcats are a distinct species, although there are a lot that are hybridised offspring of Wildcat-domestic moggy crosses. True Scottish Wildcats are pretty formidable, and would quite happily give you a good kicking if cornered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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