Monday, October 5, 2009

Cat Carnage

This is what the old VW looked like after my hard days work... Not bad for 38 years, if I do say so myself. Hell, its almost as old as me!

And then, the cats came to visit. They weren't very nice to each other either...

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The next morning this little pool of guts was slathered all over the convertible top of the VW. That bright red puddle in the middle is about six inches by 4 inches. There's splatter everywhere on the top of the car. Blood smears were also all over the hood and engine deck lid, 3 of the 4 fenders, the windshield and the rear window.
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Here, the blood is shown running down the rear of the convertible top of the VW, and pooling on the weatherstripping under the rear window. There's a serious amount of blood here, I'd estimate about 4-6 ounces in total.
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The macabre scene didn't stop at the VW though, there were 3 pools of blood on the floor of the carport, and there were blood splatters all over the passenger side of the Land Rover, including up on the roof above the windshield, on both doors, and on the hood and front fender.
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Pretty grisly. There was even blood splattered on the ceiling of the carport and on the front of the deck box and on 4 of the 7 posts in the carport! It was everywhere!!
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There are 2 options here as to how this happened. Either 2 cats went to town and beat the hell out of each other and one of them stayed behind after the battle and cleaned his wounds, or a cat captured, disemboweled and ate a very very large rodent. Judging by the sheer volume of the blood, and the fact that it was splattered so much, and across such a great distance, leads me to believe the cat-fight theory more than the big-rat-for-dinner option.
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Either way. In the past, I've trapped and removed 24 cats from my neighborhood in the last 3 years or so, and I've been fooled, apparently, into believing that the problem has improved. Looks like I'm wrong and in a big way. So now I'm getting serious.
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The trap will get set every night, and all cats, any cats, captured in my carport, go to the pound. No exceptions. After all, I've got a 3 year old, and surely this qualifies as a health issue!!

7 comments:

Steve Reed said...

Bleah!

I think you're right -- you're entitled to trap cats that come onto your property. That's outta hand.

utahDOG! said...

Nasty beasts. I'm very disapointed in my neighbors about this. I thought they may actually be starting to understand that they aren't doing the cats any favors by pouring tons of kibble in their driveways, but I guess I was wrong.

Sad that some poor cat got the tar kicked out of it like that.

Paul said...

I will chip in to help you buy another cat trap if you would like. We must protect Jane.

utahDOG! said...

We found the cat that was the culprit, at least 50% of it anyway. The nasty beast seems to be OK, although its pretty bloody-stained. I'd guess he's either the winner of the battle, or the eater of the rat-dinner. Either way, the trap is set for tonight, and we'll see. The VW has already been 'marked' tonight, so I'm not so sure I'll get lucky.

Today's treat...tuna fish juice poored over Publix chicken liver cat food. Yum.

Barbara said...

This is absolutely gross! When I was a kid, we had 5 black cats for a while. Then a couple never came home after a late-night, very loud tangle with the tom-cat next door. I can only imagine the noise generated by whatever happened in your carport. It's pretty amazing that they can bleed and scream and still survive.

BTW, I will NOT be masquerading as a cat in your neighborhood now that I know how those cats treat each other.

utahDOG! said...

No cats in the trap this morning. I spoke to the neighbor that feeds this particular blood-stained stray and he wasn't very concerned about it, even though the cat had dragged itself over to his front porch where it bled everywhere, all over a wicker chair and cushion, and seemed to be very reluctant to leave the safety of that porch. Neighbor just poored more kibble on the ground and ment inside. Ugh!

Jacksonville is partnered with a group called No More Homeless Pets, which fixes stray cats and clips their ears and the returns the beasts to the neighborhood where they were trapped. I told my neighbor that I'd do that plan with this cat if I got it, but he just looked at me blankly like he thought I was making the whole thing up. Maybe he was drunk?

utahDOG! said...

that should be "poured more kibble and went inside..." Too early.