It’s Zaturday – Natural-Born Hunters

It’s Zaturday, the day we (Ziggy and Zorro) take over Mommy’s blog.

Zorro here. Cats are natural-born hunters. Even if our humans feed us really well, we can’t resist trying to catch little animals when we have the chance.

Ziggy and I don’t get much opportunity to hunt since we’re indoor kitties, but we still have that instinct. There are lots of lizards in Florida, and they’re always hanging out on the windows or right outside the sliding glass doors. The first time Ziggy saw a lizard on the window, he almost gave himself a concussion. I think the lizard was smarter than Ziggy, because he at least knew we couldn’t go through the glass.

In North Carolina, sometimes little mice get into the house. That’s when we really go crazy. They’re round and fluffy and run really fast, which makes them so much fun to play with. But they’re a little bit too fast. I’ve only been able to catch one, and Ziggy hasn’t caught any. I’ve caught several moths, though. They don’t have much taste, but I eat them anyway. I’ll even climb the walls of the catio to catch anything that flies in.

When cats bring home their prey, humans think that we’re bringing them presents. But that’s not true. We’re trying to teach them how to hunt so they can fend for themselves. We sometimes catch lizards and mice for Mommy, but she hasn’t gotten the hang of how to hunt yet. Any time we do catch something, like when I caught that mouse, Mommy takes it away from us so she can “rescue” it and put it back outside.

We have a bird feeder outside our catio in North Carolina. Last month, we were in the catio and a bird flew in. Ziggy caught it and it started making a bunch of noise. The next thing we knew, Mommy came flying out there screaming like the house was on fire. I didn’t know what was wrong with her. Ziggy ran back into the house through the cat door, and Mommy chased him, still screaming. (She’s too big to fit through the cat door, so she had to go the long way around.)

Mommy finally tackled Ziggy in Grandma’s living room and got the bird away from him. Then Mommy and Aunt Kim put the bird in a little box and took it outside. A little while later, Aunt Kim said the bird had flown away, and Mommy was really happy. That’s totally not the way it’s supposed to be done. We’re trying hard to teach Mommy how to hunt, but she just doesn’t seem to be getting it.

I guess we’ll just have to keep working at it.