Shrew

[poliphilo]

The cat brought home his first hunting trophy yesterday- a shrew, bloodied but still with the use of all four legs. I scooped it up, took it outside and released it into a flower bed. I don't suppose I've ever handled a shrew before. They are fat and wriggly with a rodenty overbite- and altogether pitiable.

Cats will be cats but I really wish they wouldn't.

It's a design fault in the universe.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I believe shrews are, for their weight and size, the most vicious killers in the animal kingdom!

They are pretty amazing, though.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh dear- and they're so cuuuute!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

One of my many as yet unwritten children's books is going to have a shrew hitman called Sid Sorico :)

[dadi.livejournal.com]

Alas, some of them still have the instincts of their ancestors. They just can't change it.. one would think they'd give it up when provided with regular meals, but no. Fortunately Rossini's hunting times seem to be over, which makes me sad in another way, because it means he is getting really old, he was a passionate killer of mice and whatever else he could catch. So many times I have demonstrated him my disgust at the prey he carried home.. but he always ignored me completely.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We've had cats before. There was one who used to catch slugs. And another who used to line up her kills in the back yard.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

But you got him to go after rats! You can't expect him to differentiate among rodents.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I know. Not very consistent, am I?

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Cats are hunters so it's not a design fault. They are doing what their ancestors did even though they have no need to do it. They can't distinguish and your cat wanted you to make much of his prowess!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh but it is a design fault. I'm imagining a world in which every species would be vegetarian. Wouldn't that be wonderful!

(I do have my tongue in my cheek- but only a bit)

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

It's not a design fault in the universe. Cats are exceptionally good hunters. They are Nature's most efficient killing machines. (And the funniest!) The predators are there to keep the prey population in check. The prey are there to feed the predators. This is the Terrible/Beautiful face of Nature. It is not a design fault. It is a beautiful, sublime feature.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Don't you think it would be nicer if every species was vegetarian?

There are times when I think this "red in tooth and claw" state of affairs is something we should be trying to evolve beyond.

[craftyailz.livejournal.com]

When vegetables are really dead they go all slimy - at least carnivores eat dead things - you vegetarians like to pick and eat yours fresh. Marlowe is only doing the same. ;)

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I DO think so, but then I realize a couple of other sad facts...

If you do not control your mice, they will over populate, possibly bringing disease into your house that could even kill you, your wife, or, especially, your mother.

If your CAT does not control your mice, you will have to call an exterminator, who will put down poison or those sticky traps. Both are really horrific ways to die. A good hunting cat is quick and clean and efficient. A cat that really means business can snap a neck in an instance... so no starving to death stuck to a trap or stomach being slowly dissolved as with poison.

I know you love animals (this is one of the things that I most appreciate about you!), but, so do I, and I really hate mouse traps and poison.

Ok... off of soapbox now.

(If I seem a little tense about this, it just so happens that I am having the same discussion right now with the Lady of the Manor).