deadbird.jpg

Dead bird. Free for the taking. Limited Supply. First come first served. On the sidewalk, 13th & Pine.

31 replies on “Attention, Cats!”

  5. “Cats generally don’t scavenge or show interest in dead animals.” Man, speak for your own cats. My two beasts are probably already rubbing that thing all over themselves.

    What they don’t seem to show much interest in is the internet.

  8. A cat on the roof probably killed this one and flung it to the sidewalk below without compunction. I love cats, but they kill unbelievable numbers of birds purely for shits and giggles. If people kept their household cats indoors songbirds would be all over the damn place, trilling as they perch on our shoulders and such.

  9. FREE BIRD! FREE BIRD! FREE BIRD!

    @8: Nah, cats only kill if they’re hungry. They’ll catch things and toy with them, but the instinct to deliver a killing bite only triggers if they are hungry. That said, they are liable to accidentally kill things that they’re playing with.

  11. @9,

    What about cats who “provide” for their family by killing birds and leaving them at the front door. My childhood cat did that. My current cat does that by “killing” her toys and leaving them on my pillow.

  14. @13,

    I once watched a seagull snatch a pigeon by its neck, kill it, and the share the morsel with its mate, all as the pigeon’s mate stood by and watched.

  15. I used to have a little graveyard in the back of my folks’ yard where I buried all the cat casualties, and marked each grave with a stone. Eventually, I had to bury some cats up there, too…

  17. @12
    What are you talking about? First, my cats love eating dead stuff.

    Second, how do you explain Friskies? Canned tuna? Smoked ham? You telling me that stuff is still alive?

    This is serious man.

  19. 8 gloomy gus
    shut the crap up. a whole, apparently unwounded bird with a bent neck like that laying on an open sidewalk in an urban area most probably either hit a window of a building while in flight or got hit by a car. bet you 10 bucks its neck is broken or it has a severe concussion.
    that is waaaaaaay more likely than your little scenario.
    window kills in urban areas are extremely common and deadly. especially starting around now, when birds are migrating.
    anti cat people gotta get a grip and realize that a lot of other things besides cats kill birds. including yourselves.

  21. @14:

    Funny, gruesome story but a couple of things:

    1) There is so such thing as a “seagull”. There are different types of gulls e.g California, Ring-billed, Ivory, etc. The word seagull gives most birders fits.

    2) Pigeons seem dumb and are super horny (up to 6 broods a year!). I’m sure the mate got over its loss pretty quickly.

  22. @19 Yes, buildings do kill many birds (most migratory songbirds migrate at night which is usually when the impacts occur) and this particular bird likely died of an impact.

    But there is no question as to the incredible killing power of cats, a non-native small animal super predator. Ask any biologist/ecologist/conservationist: pet cats should be kept inside, feral cat populations eliminated.

    @9 Cats do not only kill if they’re hungry. In fact, most house cats do not know to eat the prey they catch. Killing is instinctual, eating what they kill has to be learned from the momma cat.

  23. onion, I’m not anti cat, to me happiness is waking up with a man to my right and his cat on my head.

    I’m anti how many cat lovers have no idea if you let your cat roam outdoors what’s gonna happen. I think if more cat owners knew fewer would let ’em out.

    Yes, I shoehorned in my little ax to grind on this post of a non-cat-chewed bird. Boo hoo.

  24. Hah, just checked back here, gus dearest…it’s true, roaming cats are a pain (not the cats themselves, just their mileage), we ended up with a kids’ sandbox that became a litterbox.

    And I’ve just discovered the one thing we don’t have in common 🙁
    ….Mr. Canuck sleeps on my left….

  25. Ooh, sorry about the litterbox. In spite of it all, there’s nothing I like more than wandering with a beloved on a sunny summer afternoon down one of the costly leafy streets atop Capitol Hill, where the cats sun themselves around the front gardens of the houses. They’re in such good moods from the sun that they’ll often be seduced into wandering over for a scratch or two under the chin or behind the ears.

    (And in truth, I mentioned the right only because I had to pick one. Since I’m single I’m quite ambidextrous, bedwise…)

  26. Now you’re reminding me about spring days in Cambridge, where you could walk through old, pricey neighbourhoods and speculate about the owners. And, of course, a walk usually meant ending up at a coffee shop with a chocolate croissant. Here, we have to wear bells to scare away the bears, and a walk ends up back at the house, where I make my own coffee. Sigh. (I’m all crabby since I saw that picture of Dan at the White House in his untucked shirt. Which is a lovely thing on a Sunday morning, but not at Obama’s house…)

  29. Aw, what a great walk, bears and all. Canuck, you gotta cut Dan some slack on his Home Depot Supervisor outfit today. He’s stubborn as a mule, that one…

  30. I’ve gathered that, gus, if Terry’s had as little sartorial influence over the years as it appears…(“clean up in aisle ten!”)

    Now I’m off to search for evidence of Dan in drag, Slog circa early 2010, or so Kim in the urinal thread (totally doesn’t scan) promises me…I may turn up here looking for help if I can’t find it…

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