My Girls Just Killed A Kitten.

[Guest peacehound]

Peace got a baby rabbit just last week and it was horrific, she also has killed two birds..I worry that the neighbor's cat will get in the fence area, I have asked them three different times to keep the cat away from our yard

[heartdogs]

I had 2 cat/dog happenings in my yard, first about midnight I let 5 dogs out & the caught a cat & pukked it apart. The second time a foster went out the door & grabed a cat & in secins he's snapped its neck. He wanted to bring in to his crate but dropped it at the door when I told him to & another foster grabbed it & ran all over the yard while O got the rest of the dogs inside. I had a very hard time getting Only the release the cat but she finally did. These cats belonged to a neighbor across the street that I had warned I would NOT get in the middle of a dog/cat fight but her answer was "my cats would never get in your yard-they did all the time. Now her cats stay outside my fence & tease the dogs. She feeds all the strays, never fixes her cats & doesn't get their shots so I don't feel sorry for her, just the cats.

[cleptogrey]

we just went thru the same thing 2 weeks ago. a ferel cat made it into our yard and annie attacked it at 11 pm, the dog's final turn out for the night. annie seriously injured the cat! dh and i went into the yard trying to locate the critter w/ flashlights. we found it was hiding in between the bushes and the fence. we were able to get it to move but it was dragging it's rear leg . so, we left the gate open hoping that it would leave.

 

no luck, the injured cat was still in the yard the next morning. he checked the yard before departing at 3 am for a antique show and left me a note, "NO CAT" and i had an early morning meet and greet.when i let the dogs out Annie had her hunting bark- she found the critter. i left messages with over 1/2 dozen cat rescue groups and NO ONE called back. by the time he returned the poor mamed cat was sitting on a pile of branches. it was really upsetting for both of us, especially dh who loves cats and that we knew it was suffering. but the killer was NO RESPONSES WHAT SO EVER FROM THE RESCUE GROUPS AND THE LOCAL POUND'S REFUSAL it finally died on the way to another shelter and we feel awful about it's suffering. as it turns out my daughter had just rescued 3 ferel kittens and their momma down in texas. i guess that's the ying and yan of life.

 

annie was just doing her job, that's what she was bred to do. so far annie has killed an eclectus parrot(that was a horror story- the person who boards our dogs has a huge managery of you name it and her guard was down- i managed to find a cockatoo for adoption for her), many birds in our yard, seriously mamed a cat, ate an old dead turtle(dh brought it home for his antique business, it was a gonner by the time he hit the bathroom and returned to take his package downstairs, it was on the back porch) and who know what else. i just found racoon paw prints on my back porch, now that's something that i'm really concerned about!

 

sight hounds are meant to hunt, some are more intense and better hunters, we have the intense hunters!

Edited May 23, 2011 by cleptogrey

[Guest CampWhippet]

.....I of course was yelling "NO! NO! and DROP IT!" over and over, and I thew the kitchen bucket and my car keys at them to get them to stop, which they did. All things considered, they stopped fairly soon after I yelled at them, and dropped the little black kitten.

 

I restrained them, me frozen in horror as the poor kitten bled all over the driveway. It was split open and dying. It lost so much blood I thought it would go pretty quickly, but it wretched on the driveway for a while, just so horrible......

 

 

Sorry that happened.

 

Mine have caught a few things and one thing I've learned is that once they've got it it might be better to let them kill it. I'd rather they finish off the animal than have me need to do it, or let it suffer.

[GeorgeofNE]

What an awful thing to go through. I'm glad my boy has no prey drive, but I've had to handle the fun presents from our local stray cats and it's not much fun. (Bunny ear and foot in the empty kibble bowl. Peachy.)

 

I don't know what resources are available in your area, but it might be worth looking for a feral cat organization in your area. If you are lucky, you can find an organization that will trap and relocate the strays in your neighborhood -- your dogs aren't the only predators facing that litter of kittens.

 

And give yourself some time to recover! Hang in there.

 

 

We had a problem at my old condo. Animal control does not deal with feral cats. Not in Massachusetts, anyway. The only organizations that would trap, spay/neuter, and release wanted $90 per cat. I called and emailed place after place, and the best help I could have gotten was a place that would deal with them if we trapped them and brought them in. I couldn't even find anyone to loan us traps.

 

The OP lives in Los Angeles. With California's financial woes, I am guessing that the OP would not be able to find any more help than I could.

 

Best bet is probably to make her fence more secure and hope it doesn't happen again.

[Guest sheila]

 

We had a problem at my old condo. Animal control does not deal with feral cats. Not in Massachusetts, anyway. The only organizations that would trap, spay/neuter, and release wanted $90 per cat. I called and emailed place after place, and the best help I could have gotten was a place that would deal with them if we trapped them and brought them in. I couldn't even find anyone to loan us traps.

 

The OP lives in Los Angeles. With California's financial woes, I am guessing that the OP would not be able to find any more help than I could.

 

Best bet is probably to make her fence more secure and hope it doesn't happen again.

 

True enough. Now I'm going to make a suggestion (not a directive since I probably wouldn't do this) that is a shot in the dark.

Sometimes these spay/neuter programs are begun as a 'grass roots' effort. A small group or even one person begins a program that perhaps reaches just their own neighborhood. They solicit donations from the neighborhood and/or grants from rescue groups and network with vets to see if there is any interest in starting up such a program. Maybe it takes off, maybe it doesn't. Maybe 2 cats get spayed and it fizzles out. Still not a fail since the effort was made and two 'baby makers' were shut down.

I suppose this is a dumb idea, but it's one of those 'throw out the dumb idea and see if anything sticks' kind of thing. Couldn't hurt/might help.

[Guest bluefiggie]

I had almost the same situation with my girl Lola a few years ago. Feral kittens living in the overgrown bushy section of chainlink fencing in the back corner of the yard. Since she was kinda messy I washed her and removed the kittens from the area. Afterwards I was very careful with her around cats and other small animals. Does this mean they are no longer small animal/cat safe? Not neccessarily. Lola and I moved back to my moms house for a while and she slept on the bed with my moms cat.

 

I agree the kitten should be moved or frozen until trash day. You have to remember that they were not only doing what comes natural but playing with the best squeak toy ever.

[Guest lynne893]

Again, thank you all for just BEING there, for listening, for sympathizing and relating, and for helping offer solutions.

 

DH got home late last night, and he said he'd "take care of it" in the morning, well, I'm kind of a control freak and insisted we move the bag from the garbage to another dumpster. He wanted to do it in the morning (after all, he just worked a 13 hr day), but I had lots of reasons for not waiting. There's NO WAY I could stomach having it in our freezer, though that really would have probably been best.

 

I will look into trap/spay programs. And importantly, we will just need to bite the $ bullet and fix our fence. (Though I realize that cats are climbers, so it can't stop them all...)

 

seeh20, we live near Culver City. What part of town are you in?!

 

Scoobyw172, what a horrible story. We have some creepy people like that in LA. Very impoverished, very desperate and under-educated. It's sad that some children don't have the opportunity to grow up learning about compassion

[fourofem]

Mine would have done the same thing...it's horrible to watch but hopefully, any other kitties hanging around got a glimpse of what happened and will stay away. The first few months after I moved, mine crew caught and killed several squirrels and one rabbit. Either the wildlife around here wised up or my kids have gotten lazy.

[Hubcitypam]

Rex was a first class squirrel killer but he always snapped their necks clean so it never upset me too much. What you went thru was way worse than anything I've seen and at least to me, kittens are a bit different than squirrels...I'm so sorry.

[Guest FullMetalFrank]

I am pretty sure my girls, given the chance, would do the same thing... I am sorry, it must have been awful to witness.

[winnie]

Well, I let our four grey girls out this morning... and Darcy caught herself another bird. This is her third robin. She catches them in mid-flight too... amazing. It was still moving around in her mouth. I just let her finish it off. She proudly carried her "prize" to the back door so she could show me. I didn't yell at her. I just said firmly to "drop it" (which she did) and then got my DH to scoop it up in a plastic bag. I'm truly amazed that birds still want to come near our yard.

[JAJ2010]

I have no doubt that my girls would do the same thing and they live with 2 in your face kitties.

[Guest spsjohnson]

First day my girl came home she took half the tail feathers off a male cardinal in our yard- in flight! Very good reminder for a new adopter about both the speed, eyesight and instincts of these wonderful creatures. She ignores the four indoor cats she lives with but would happily "take care of" any of the ferrals that I have been trapping and taking to the pound for years (one neighbor feeds them). Since Julie joined our family, gardening has become much less icky- nothing more frustrating than cleaning the litter boxes inside and then going outside to weed and having to do the same chore in the garden because of my thoughtless neighbor. I don't want my hound to kill anything but I know they are only doing what they were created to do/be. The black snake in the bunny nest was my experience with the haunting sounds.... Sorry you had to deal with the kitten.

[Guest Samantha]

How awful you had to witness that. Maddison has zero prey drive, has never raced or anything. Awhile back she was in the garden when I saw her running wildly about, further investigation showed that she had grabbed the neighbours cat!!. I was mortified, and to make matters worse the neighbour saw the whole thing. The neighbour called the police, who came to my house, I explained that the cat was in my garden etc and they said it was sad and explained to the neighbour that because the cat was in my garden at the time there wasn't anything that could be done. Something obviously kicked in with her that day, as she has never shown any interest in any kind of small animal. To her she had done something really good and looked very rpoud of herself. It took me afew days but you realise these are dogs...and dogs chase cats!.

 

Hugs to you and you puppers xxx

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

It's sad, but it's entirely the fault of the idiots who let their cats roam outside and breed. I wouldn't feel any guilt (try hard not to!). I would probably wash them to be safe and inspect their mouths carefully. What you saw was no doubt horrifying, and I'm sorry you had to see it

[Guest betheab199]

Oh, this sounds so awful to have witnesses. But I agree with the others, this is dogs with a prey drive being dogs.

 

And it really shows the need for spaying and neutering cats.

[Guest BassoonMo]

I know exactly how you feel. Our greyhound killed a little kitten this week. I let the dogs out in the evening and they ran over to the edge of the yard and were obviously chasing something. We've had some cats in the yard before and they always get away, so I wasn't worried. Then I saw that Easy had something in his mouth and I ran over and told him to drop it. He did, but when I got back over by the kitten, he picked it back up and ran across the yard with it. I had him drop it again and yelled for my husband to come outside. The poor kitten's neck was obviously broken, but it was just laying there twitching in pain. It was horrible to watch and it took it a while to die. I don't blame Easy, but I still feel horrible about the kitten. I know it was a wild cat because I had seen it with it's mom and some other kittens. I'm just glad it wasn't someone's pet...