Our cat scare
- June 03, 2002
- 10 comments
On Saturday night, I went outside to feed the cats, and noticed they were all gone. The little boxes we put out for them to laze in were turned over and there was some bits of fur in our yard near where they stay. I went looking for them around the yard, and found Tuff (our biggest cat, and he is a bruiser) up a tree. He only climbs that tree when he’s very afraid of something. I looked for another 10 minutes for Junior (our youngest cat) and Oreo (our 16 year old cat), but couldn’t find them anywhere.
All of the sudden, I heard a really loud cat fight from over by our barn. So I ran as fast as I could over to where I thought it was happening. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Junior running back towards the house while I was running towards the barn. So I thought that it was the tomcat that lives in our neighbors field tearing into Oreo. She has no front claws, so she can’t defend herself very well. When I reached the fenceline, I saw the tomcat’s eyes reflect my flashlight. He ran off and I didn’t see him again that night.
My parents and sister came out, and we called Oreo for about 10 minutes, but didn’t hear a thing. I thought she had been torn up pretty bad and went off to either heal or die. I figured that if she could, she’d be home by morning, so I went back inside to sleep.
The next morning, she still wasn’t home, so we figured the worst. There are TONS of coyotes, bobcats, wolves and even a panther or two out here, so we figured she was caught by one and killed. We all felt awful. We kept looking in different places for a couple of hours in the morning, but gave up looking for her. We figured the tomcat had either killed her or injured her bad enough that she went off to hide and was killed by something else.
That tomcat has been terrorizing our cats and our neighbor’s cat for a couple of months now, so we decided we’d kill him. So last night, we put some food over the fence to attract him. We were going to bring our cats in after the Lakers/Kings game and wait for him, but when we went outside, our cats were gone again! We found Tuff up the same tree, but couldn’t find Junior anywhere. I was so pissed! Two cats gone in two nights! Dad loaded our .22 rifle, and we brought it outside to look for the tomcat. I brought a flashlight with me, and shown it out into our field at about 10:30 pm. I saw 2 blue eyes looking back at me, but they kept moving away from me. I called Junior again, but the eyes kept moving away. Then I lost them. After about 5 minutes, I saw them again by our old chicken pen, but this time they were running at me. I raised the gun, but noticed in time it was Junior! So now we were ready to shoot any pair of eyes we saw in our field. We knew Junior and Tuff were inside, and Oreo was dead.
An hour later, my mother saw the tomcat in our carport eating the cats’ food! So I grabbed the gun and flashlight and went around the other side of the house to trap him. Dad waited until I was there, and then went out the door closest to the tomcat. He started running straight for me and didn’t see me. I leveled the gun right at him and pulled the trigger when he was about 3 feet away. The hammer clicked, but there was no bullet in the chamber!!! Dad had forgotten to load a bullet in the chamber and also forgotten to tell me!! I was amazingly pissed by this point. I cocked the gun and spun around, but never saw the tomcat again that night.
We kept checking every now and then to see if he would come back, but he didn’t. Right before I went to bed, I went outside one last time, but this time without the gun. I shown the flashlight over by our mailbox and saw 2 pairs of eyes looking at me. I figured they were rabbits or raccoons, but they didn’t act like them. They both started moving towards the back of the house following our driveway. I figured they were stray cats and tried to scare them away. One stopped, but the other kept coming. I ran back inside to get the gun, and when I went outside in the front again, they were both gone. I ran to the back of the house and found Oreo by the back door!! I was shocked! We had all written her off as dead. I let her in the house, and looked for the other cat, but never found it. Oreo was acting weird, but is better now that she has eaten and slept. She probably hadn’t eaten or slept in over 24 hours.
What’s weird about this is that Oreo is scared to death of other cats, even our other cats she doesn’t get close to. But she wasn’t scared of the one that was with her last night. They were walking side by side. And also, if I would’ve had the gun, I would’ve shot her. But that was the only time that night I didn’t have the gun. Talk about things going the right way. If I would’ve shot Oreo, I would’ve never forgiven myself. I grew up with her. And my middle sister would’ve killed me with her bare hands since it was her cat.
So we’re all very glad that Oreo is safe and ok. We’re still going to hunt down this tomcat since he’s the one who has bloodied up Junior and chased Tuff up a tree.
Chris
June 13, 2002
Hi Jaynee,
The reason we put Oreo outside is because she pees all over the house. She alone has cost us about $1000 in repair around the house. She finds a place somewhere in the house and keeps peeing there until we find it. By the time we find it, she’s already done damage. Not only to the floor and wall, but to our noses. Cat pee reeks.
So we decided it’d be cheaper to keep her outside than to let her stay inside. And she seems to have picked it up. She no longer hangs out by the back door. We’ve caught her wandering around out in our field a bit. She loves the sun and the warm concrete. I think it helps with her old creaky bones. =]
Shocked
September 23, 2005
I can’t believe you would willingly shoot a cat with a gun just because it had a fight with yours!! You must care about cats or you wouldn’t have them, so why would you try and shoot this Tomcat?
I think you need to think about what you are trying to do to this poor cat – he is just doing what cats do – fighting for some territory.
I can’t believe you think you have the moral high ground on this one. This wasn’t some poor, misunderstood kitty-cat who’s just looking for a home and a warm meal. The cat was ripping up our cats. The cat was stealing our cats’ food (costing us money). The cat ran off our oldest cat who has no front claws and can barely take care of herself. And he was messing with the neighbors’ cats too. Yes, I would shoot the bastard. Gladly. And so would any of our neighbors. The thing was a major pest.
Shocked
October 5, 2005
Still trying to figure out how evil we are for wanting to shoot a cat, huh? Unbelievable.
1. She used to be an indoor cat and would tear up all of our furniture. So we had her declawed in order to keep her inside. In her later years, she started peeing all over the place and ruining the floors and floor boards. There was nothing we could do for her other than put her outside. Now she’s just shy of 20 years old and can’t really defend herself from a kitten, let alone a large tom.
2. It ate it. The same thing with skunks, raccoons and opossums that come along. We chase them off the first few times, which works most of the time. They’ll stay away. If they keep coming back, we shoot them with a BB gun. That worked on all animals except this tom.
3. Because one cat barely leaves the carport. Another is inside most of the time. Junior (who is now dead) was neutered, so he didn’t roam and pick fights. The farthest I had ever seen him roam was to our barn, about 25 yards away from the house. And besides, if Junior was being a pest and tearing up other animals and stealing food, he would’ve been shot by one of our neighbors. He never was though.
Shocked
October 6, 2005
Shocked
Well let’s see… someone from England waltzes in to my site, reads one old story about my cats and thinks they know all there is about how I treat them. Then they have the gall to say my cats are mistreated.
Then when I try to defend myself, you spring the classic switch to make it look like I feel guilty about something. Why I tried to explain myself to you when it was obvious you’re just posting to get a rise, I’m not sure.
You’re an idiot who gets a kick out of posting inciteful comments. I have a special club for people like you. Welcome to the Assclown Club. You’ll be in great company.
Wow – that’s a rough story to read! So sorry to hear that a tomcat has been roughing up your kitties. One thing concerns me is that you let a declawed cat run around freely. I know cats use their backclaws to defend themselves in a fight, but they use their front claws as well – not just to climb trees to get out of harm’s way. Would you not consider having your declawed cats remain indoors? We have four cats, all without front claws, and we NEVER let them outside. Just a thought.
Glad all your kitties are safe! =)