MO of a Killer...

[billboe]

After reading Terry's post about his cat (sorry for your family's loss!!), I thought I'd see if anyone had thoughts about our cat's demise...

It has been some months now, but our beautiful black longhaired cat "disappeared"... When he didn't show up for a day, I went looking and found half of his carcass about 75 feet from the house in the "woods". Head, front legs, and rib cage remained (in very good condition with fur in tact). Rear half of the body was gone as well as all of his innards. Something broke the spine cleanly in half.

As far as predators, we have mountain lions and coyotes (both seen or heard quite regularly in the area)... There are also a couple of local golden labs, but, I don't think they would do it!?!? Any guesses as to the culprit?


See Ya,

 

[Thomas]

Almost sounds like a Fishercat attack.

 

[Boondox]

Not sure if they have fishers out in Cal. We lost our wonderful cat, Microsoft, to a fisher a few years ago. I heard the commotion and took out the fisher with my .35, but it was too late for Microsoft.

I've heard of dogs killing cats, but not of them eating it. Sounds more like what a coyote would do, but at least around here they rarely travel/hunt unless in a pack. Were there any tracks around the crime scene?

A lot of folks view cats as disposable. Once you get an exceptional cat, however, that view changes. We still miss Microsoft, and feel for your loss.

pete

 

[kcbarnes]

We also just had a weird thing happen. Our barn cat had kittens in our basement and we thought everything would be safe. when they were 3 weeks old something came into our basement using the dog door and killed all 3 kittens and ate the head of one while the mother was outside. So I went to work with traps (hoping it wasn't a skunk) and 4 nights later I caught a big ole tomcat.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

It does sound like a coyote to me. We have them all over the place here in norte tejas.

I lost four cats last year. One of them I'd had for eight years and was a one man cat. I was blessed with being that one man.

We figure it was the coyotes. They're just doing what coyotes do.

I always wondered how a coyote could kill a cat without going away with the lesson that was a one time deal for sure.

But I have a bud that has a Walmart dog. Yup, one of them free puppies you find occasionally at every Walmart.

The dog kills cats. Bud's not a cat person. But he told me how Max does it. She corners the cat and just barks at it. Eventually the cat will become bored and look around for an out. When it glances away Max dives in for the kill.

At the shop I've seen her launch on to a rat nest when we've picked up a sheet of steel at her request. If there's four of them there and they scatter she'll have three.

One of these days bud will lose Max. I don't want to see that. But even though he probably won't realize it he will feel the same as I did when I lost Boots.

 

[Thomas]

Looks like /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif day..hard to believe a week ago there was snow on the ground,and the start of blackfly season. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Enjoy.

 

[TerryinMD]

Billboe,

Sorry to hear about your loss too.

Male cats will kill off a litter of kittens in a heartbeat!! Unbeknown to us, we had a feral cat that had a litter of kittens under a pile of railroad ties on our property. One night we heard a lot night cat noises with their terrible screams. A couple of days later I found a couple of dead kittens next to the pile. This is nature (at it's best??? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif)

A few years back, there was a special on TV about domestic cats and their behavior. The people who did the documentary captured this behavior by the male cats and found out that it happens quite often. I believe it happens with the larger cats also. The perp cat is usually not the father of the kittens and kills of his "opponents" offspring. Bizzare behavior.

And yes, coyotes love to snack on cats.

When you lose an animal to unknown killers, you feel helpless and angry. It's a part of nature that we find unacceptable.

In our situation, my wife went over to one of neighbors house yesterday to talk to them about their dog. He's the one that kills rabbits and other cats. They said that their dog was in the house (as far as they knew - whatever that means) and that they were sorry to hear about our cat. Fair enough. However, our local cattle farmer has given them a second warning about their dog being on their ranch. The calves are still young and are susceptable (sp?). The farmer shot a killed one of their dogs a few years back. You would think that they would have learned by now./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

Terry

 

[knucklehead]

Also foxes, and raccoons...got them out there? Raccoons take cats around here - always thought they were gentle prowlers.

Would that .35 be a .35 Remington? In a Marlin lever? Nice caliber, nice rifle.

 

[Boondox]

<font color=blue>Would that .35 be a .35 Remington? In a Marlin lever? Nice caliber, nice rifle. </font color=blue>

Yup, that's the one. That Marlin was my first big/slow firearm...big hunk of lead that didn't move very fast. In the Marines, it was all about very small/very fast. I like the Marlin. [censored] fine brush gun. Great for whitetail. Scares the dickens out of coyotes when they eyeball the chickens. Made a mess out of that fisher cat and also the red fox that killed our hens last year. It's my policy not to shoot the predators unless they actually get into my animals; the coyotes hear that roar and get the message. The fox and the fisher didn't.

It was way too heavy for the wife, though. Got her a Winchester 1300 in 12ga. She uses it to prune branches off the trees. In the process she became very familiar with the piece and became a pretty fair shotgunner.

Semper fi,
Pete

 

[Bird]

Several years ago, when we were living in town, a female cat "adopted" us; don't know where she came from. But she had a litter of kittens in my boat in the garage, sired by a tomcat that lived two doors down the street. I had the kids move her and her litter into a small unused doghouse on the back patio (we had a 6' wood privacy fence around the back yard). And the first night they were out there, the tomcat that sired that litter came and killed all the kittens./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif