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We have two kitty cats. My kids picked them out of 2 litters of barn cats after playing with them since before they were weaned. After they came home to live with us, they had to unlearn a few things their mom taught them.... Like "the ceiling fan is NOT a turkey vulture or eagle about to have them for lunch, and it is NOT necessary to hide under the bed when it is turning (like they used to crawl under the tack shed at first sign of the flying death)"
An ability they seemed to have come with built-in is catching mice.
They are indoor cats, but there is a lockable cat door to the garage from the laundry room, and they get to go out there, especially around this time of the year when the mice try to move in from the cold outside. And they amuse themselves by catching mice, crickets, grasshoppers, etc.
My previous cat, rescued from the animal shelter, had ZERO talent in that area. If he did catch one, he would immediately lose it in the house somewhere and humans had to move furniture and heavy appliances to locate and dispatch.
These two started out catching them live, and *not* releasing them -- only trading them for a treat -- but have sharpened their claws and have been bringing them dead or nearly dead,... And even *ate* one in front of the kids one day.
Today, the more talented of the two mousers turned up with a new trick -- she came in through the cat door mrrrwwing in a muffled way she typically announces a successful catch. When I turned around to look, she had her mouth clamped on a corner of a small Seven-Eleven plastic bag, carefully avoiding stepping on the rest of the bag she was dragging between her legs. On closer view, we realized that she was carrying a dead mouse in the plastic bag. (DD inspected it and said the mouse's neck was broken)
It was kind of amusing in a ghoulish way especially because I had gone food shopping earlier in the day, and had brought in bags of food......
