Cats In The Food Chain

I kind of knew this happens out in the wild but never had it crossed my mind. It's kind of a shock but it is hard to deal with at the moment. I never thought of it this way or that it would ever happen here. It's something that never crossed my mind. Never would I have ever thought of this happeing yet it has made me more aware of the things that occur in nature.

What I am talking about is the thought that our pets, that we see as companions, are not always seen by others in that way.

Many cats have disappeared in our community and from our yards and I never thought anything other then they dying or moving on to another place in the neighborhood. Mind you I live in a 350 acre forested mountain where many city dwellers drop off unwanted litters of cats and dogs. I have taken in many of these, given them good homes or raised them myself. One myth is that all kittens/cats will make indoor pets. That is not true. Some will do well while others will not.

It wasn't until Christmas Day that I began a search for one of my own cats (Sunshine or Foxy Lady was her other name that she liked just recently) that had disappeared from my yard. She never leaves the yard and is always sitting on the front porch or rolling in the dirt in the driveway. She would always come in at night and make a bee line from the food dish, then the water dish then right in the middle of our bed. She would stay there util we got into bed and then she would snuggle up to me the rest of the night.

We have many predators around our woods because we are away from the city. There was a sighting of Black Bear about a year ago and also just recently of a Mountain Lion. It is also been known that there are coyotes around here as well. It didn't occur to me the birds would be predators to domestic animals as well until I started putting two and two together.

Last summer a couple of neighbors saw a deer carcass torn in in few pieces and the head in another part of the surrounding area. They also seen a dog like a Collie carcass with it's back torn to pieces. I did try to keep my cats near to the house and the ones that were indoor/outdoor cats inside at night to keep them sage from those predators. We knew who they were and they always left signs, like the carcasses..

This Christmas Day I let out Sunshine and Shadow, the two cats that want out during the day. I watched them go off of the ramp to our deck and of course Shadow goes someplace else and hided. Sunshine usually stays near the ramps with occassionaly going to the bathroom in the forest nearby. We live in a forest, but they don't go near the house but in the outskirts of the yard. I have an acre and much of it I can see from any window in my house.

This day I watched her play with Mikey, one of the outdoor cats, try to catch birds as they fed from the hanging feeder I have and lay around. When it was time to let her in, she didn't want in and I can't go after her because she makes it a game and it will last all night. Maybe I should have done that though on second thought.

Anyway there was a skirmish of some kind that night and Charlie, my total indoor cat, was making all kinds of noises in the window above my head over the bed. He was running back and forth like I was railroad tracks and he was the train. I turned around and looked out the window and didn't see anything so I went bak to sleep.

The next morning when Shadow came in, Sunshine was nowhere to be found. They always go out together and come back in together. Shadow was looking for her looking out the full glass storm door. I went out and looked under the house all around the house and not one single sign of her. I thought someone had stolen her or that someone called Animal Control to rid the neighborhood of cats. That wasn't the case. Others have noticed a big decrease in the stray cat population here as well. In a year I have had 4 cats come up missing. No sign of them at all. We all thought this was weird. Then it came to me to look over the Internet on if cats could be prey. They answer was a definate YES.

As sad as it is it does happen. Our precious animals companions are not seen as that but as a food source to other animals in nature. It isn't the bear or the mountain lion or even the coyote that is preying on our cats here, but something from the air...the Great Horned Owl.

The Great Horned Owl got it's name because of the feathers on top of his head that look like horns. They are not horns at all. This bird is a predator in much of the United States, the lower part of Canada and all of Central America and some places in the northern part of South America. It gets to be between 18 to 25 inches long, has a wing span of about 5 feet and weighs approximately 4 pounds. In the wild they live about 14 years. In captivity they live much longer than that to about 38 years. Nesting is between January and February though they like to steal others pre-built nest or settle in a cave.

It's diet preference is Rabbits and just about anything else it can catch. Among them are: birds (including large ones), reptiles and cats and small dogs. It is not a picky eater by any means. It feeds from Dusk to Dawn but sometimes it will be seen in the afternoon and late evenings.

Like I stated earlier I thought nothing of this but I have heard these birds for a few years. I hear them mostly in May and September. I hear their hoots very clear on clear nights and it seems to ring throughout the whole of the forest and many miles away. I have heard and seen them searching for prey and again never thought that the cats would be a choice for their dinner

Thinking about all this the last few days made me realized that I have not seen a rabbit here in these woods for a few years now. My cats have not brought to me mice or other small rodents except for one last Spring. I have not seen many snakes around here either. I have come to the conclusion by evidence that these Owl's food supply is low and they are taking cats as prey.....a few were mine. When they catch an animal they use their bodies as a torpedo diving down from a tree limb with their wings closed in. Their prey don't know what hit them and the Owl's talons kill the animal instantly.

I am finding it hard to grieve because I am still thinking that maybe she was spooked or ran from something and that she will come back in a few days. Deep in my heart though I know that this is a very strong possibility that she was food because there is not signs of anything. Owl's will take prey larger than themselves and take it to their nest leaving nothing behind. Smaller prey they will eat whole...just gulp it down.

It's surreal and am finding it hard to get my head around this. It's horrible because I loved her so much but then again out in nature she was just a natural occurrence.

After I wrote this hub I found her in one of the outdoor cat boxes. We took her to the vets because for 2 days after I found her she would not eat. Her favorite canned food she would not touch. They did all kinds of tests on her to find everything was fine. They found that she was dehydrated and so they gave her some Vitamin "D" and fluids intravenously for a whole day. She would not eat at the Vets either but since they found nothing really wrong with her they sent her home. I crated her so that I could keep an ey on her eating. I put her in the crate and gave her food and water. She ate almost all her food and then she poo'ed. It smelled like medicine. Yuck! I needed to see it though so that I could report it to the Vets. It's been a little while now and she is back to her self now.

We were outside a couple of nights ago and heard yet another sound in the woods. We haven't hear this sound in a few years. If Sunshine never saw one of these birds she most definitely would have been scared out of her wits. By personal experience I know they are territorial and will not hesitate to attack. These birds I heard usually end up on someone's table at Thanksgiving. Turkey's also frequent our woods because we live in the middle of a Bird Sanctuary. They would have cornered her and chased her many yards from her home.

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