Quote Originally Posted by Dana Jean View Post
And, just so you know, you are allowed to feed your mousers. My MIL would get super mad at me for feeding the barn cats because she said they wouldn't mouse if they were fed. Well, wrong....When I fed the barn cats, their kills increased! because they wanted to show me what they got. Always. Gophers, birds, mice -- they would lay these at my feet (especially the sick one who I helped). If they could have held sticks, they would have been fanning me.
This is SO true about the cats I grew up with and Mao! They loved to show off the new "toy" if it was alive, and bring the carcass to us to show us some appreciation if it was dead. Mao gifted me all the time with rats, mice, lizards, birds, grasshoppers and crickets. And he'd eat the mice and bugs! That was one demanding cat when it came to food - very vocal about dinnertime, and he'd still eat some of his kills. (Another ewwwwwwwwwwww.) The Siamese pair I grew up with used to divebomb my parents from their headboard if my parents weren't out of bed - they wanted their food and they wanted it pronto in the morning.