The race is on
You think your cat is crazy or on speed when is suddenly starts chasing unseen predators around the place. Your cat races from room to room, and pauses briefly, tail twitching like a nervous tic. It skitters up the stairs and you swear its little cat paws never touched the ground. It’s so wired it appears to be levitating.
According to some, this is typical feline predator behaviour. Like the rest of us, they enjoy the thrill of the hunt—for us humans, it could be for a partner, for dinner, or for a bargain, but our feline friends are programmed to race after that lightning quick prey. You may want to take a page from Sparky and Jet, the treadmill kittens.
You can almost picture their ancient predecessors racing across the Serengeti to their dinnertime munch. If you’ve ever heard of the expression “herding cats,” you’ll enjoy this tongue in cheek ad about real-life cat herders.
If you’re lucky, your cat’s a mouser. Not that you want to find a little mouse corpse at your feet, but if there are mice around, you’d rather have a cat to run them off, than have them chewing through the cereal boxes in your kitchen, electrical wires in the wall, or nesting in the burner of your furnace. So just be thankful for your cat’s predatory instincts.
The deadliest catch
Is there anything more sad or disturbing than having to witness the ‘Circle of Life’ courtesy of your cat when you discover its latest catch–a poor little dead bird or a tiny velvety mouse–deposited at your doorstep.
Sound the alarm
To avoid unnecessary killing, (your cat is fed regularly, right—so it doesn’t need to kill to eat) you need to give your hunter a bit of a handicap. For outdoor cats, attach a little bell to the collar to warn any birds in the vicinity to ‘look alive’. You may save untold bird lives with this handy alarm system. For a hilarious look at what happens when birds fight back, check out the killer cockatoo in this video.
Take the tinkling collar off when the cat is indoors, otherwise every time it eats, the bell makes contact with its dish to sound like the clock is striking twelve until Fluffy gets his fill. An elasticized collar is easy to slip on and off; but please note that is must hang loosely around the neck.
Bug your cat
For some reason, insects don’t seem to rate with cats the way they do with dogs—jaws a-snapping to get that pesky fly. Cats tend to just stare at bugs curiously, benignly tracking their progress, and maybe nudging them with their paw. Although it can be hilarious watching a cat track a fly around the room, as though it were watching a game of tennis at Wimbledon, furry little head zipping back and forth, clearly enjoying the excitement of erratic movement and noise.
The world on a string
Other natural cat behaviour is chasing string, and given its amazing resemblance to a mouse tail, it kind of makes sense. This toy doesn’t cost a thing—any stray piece of string or shoelace can keep your cat entertained for hours. They’ll chase the slithering little thing and never lose an ounce of enthusiasm or energy in the process. If there are any guests you’d like to send packing, simply trail that string up their leg and into their lap and watch little Fluffy pounce. Yes, hours of fun for the humans, too.