Female cat’s ‘gift’ to male cat is not a gesture of affection
DEAR JOAN » I have written to you in the past about my orange boy cat, Morris. He has a neighborhood kitty girlfriend, Loca, who visited him almost daily.
This past summer, my hubby was sitting on the patio enjoying the weather when he called me out from the house. Loca was walking across the grass with an obviously deceased, disgusting rodent dangling from her mouth. To our surprise, she walked right up to Morris and dropped the repulsive dead offering right at his feet.
I started to run over to get both cats away from the treasure, but Morris picked it up and started … well, you know what he did with it. Loca sat about 6 feet away and just watched him enjoy her gift. After he finished, Loca got up and went home.
As gross as it was, I wondered what was going on here. Is this usual cat behavior, even if true love is involved? I saw it repeated recently with a lizard she had captured and dispatched. Morris was delighted — I wasn’t. What do you think?
DEAR JOJY » You might have to break it to Morris that the gifts of food from Loca are not romantic gestures.
Cats — especially female cats — offer gifts of dead animals to other cats as part of teaching them how to hunt. It’s instinct, and mama cats teach their young kittens in this way, providing food and then encouraging them to mimic her.
Loca probably sees Morris as a cat that needs some help with his hunting skills, but it’s obvious she likes him and accepts him into her cat clan or she wouldn’t be bringing him food.
Cats also will bring their human companions dead animals, but I always consider that a pity gift and that they view us as being too dumb to catch our own food.
I will caution you, however, that it’s not a good idea to let Morris eat dead rodents because you don’t know if someone in the neighborhood is using poison. Not to cast aspersions on Loca’s hunting skills, but a poisoned rodent is easily caught, and if eaten, the poison is passed along. As this happened some months ago and Morris still is with us, that wasn’t the case. But it is something to think about.
DEAR JOAN » How long do we keep feeding our birds with a bird feeder in Western Michigan?
DEAR JOHN » For as long as the birds keep coming, you can afford to keep buying the food and your interest in feeding the birds continues.
Birds don’t usually need our help in finding food. Under certain conditions, food might be scarce and so feeders can be helpful, but the food we provide represents only a small portion of a bird’s daily diet.
If you want to wean them off the birdseed, trying adding some bird-favorite plants in your yard and garden. Look for varieties that bloom and produce fruit and seeds at different times so the birds will be able to dine on nature’s food for a long time.
Most people feed the birds because they like watching them come into their yards. During this time of crisis and isolation, seeing a bird in your yard is a great mood lifter.