jammer wrote:

My Maine Coon also brings me critters unhurt except she can't quite
keep her teeth out of a yummy rat. She gets very upset if i don't
happen to want a half dead rat. Last week she did her GODAWEFUL, i
brought a critter bellow, and when i didnt want the mangled rat, she
did something i have never seen her do. She started with the tail, and
ATE everything up to the two little front legs and the head. It was
like Godfather Kitty or something. The head was in the middle of the
welcome mat. She thinks it's great fun to bring baby birds inside and
let them go for her future hunting pleasure, i GUESS! My favorite, is
when she somehow gets a little garden snake, brings it to the front
door and holds it with her paw then she wails that special known wail.
There is rarely any harm done to the snake by the cat and i let it go
after i finish playing with it.

The Maine Coon "I have a present" scream is hard to miss or ignore.
Until some friends heard it no one ever believed me that it would wake
me up no matter when or where. There's also no ignoring it because they
don't stop.

My male, Wallenda, was the hunter. Frogs and lizards were his specialty
along with any snake he could find. One particular time he brought me a
lizard and I played with it for a while and let it go. Thirty minutes
later, here he is, back with the same lizard, this time with a tooth
mark in it. Played with it again and let it loose. Hour later, he
returns, this time with the head chewed off. (First and only time he
ever killed something.) I guess he was trying to make sure the
"present" didn't get away from the inept hunter once again.

Wallenda has now crossed the bridge and all my current cats are strictly
indoor only.

Great cats, they are. We talk back and forth in kitty talk, i just
don't know what we say.

I talked to Wallenda and still talk to Chelsea. I lover their vocal
range and the fact that they really rarely ever come out with a classic
meow. Lots of other noises but rarely a meow. Another hallmark of
Maine Coons.

Susan
shsimko at duke dot edu