Anyone who has cats will have experienced that delightful moment when they realise that their beloved moggy has dumped a dead mouse on the doorstep/rug/pillow. What they may not realise is that puss thinks it is doing them a favour. To him, we are hopeless hunters, and therefore he is showing his concern for our welfare by bringing us the food that we cannot provide for ourselves. Some cats don’t stop at birds and mice though …
My big cat has a distinctive vocabulary, and I’ve learned to recognise the miaow that means ‘I’ve brought you something and it’s on the doormat’. Obviously, her instinct to take care of her hopeless human is so strong that she is compelled to bring me gifts – even if all she can find is a leaf that’s blown onto the terrace.
I nearly died the first time my cat brought me a dead cockroach – which wasn’t actually dead (it was once I whacked it with a broom though). Subsequently I discovered that cats are actually extremely efficient cockroach killers, which is very useful when you live in a hot climate. And if the cat doesn’t get them, the broom will.
Now, this is an extremely useful service performed by my cat. Invariably, when I bring in the laundry I fail to notice that I’ve dropped a sock en route. My lovely feline does notice, and when she finds a dropped sock she picks it up and brings it to me. Now if she could only match up the odd socks …
This might not sound like a particularly strange gift for a cat to bring in. Unless, as I used to, you live in a fourth floor flat with a very small terrace. I can only assume that the bird stunned itself by flying into a window, and that said cat did not waste the opportunity. Fortunately, the bird was rescued from the jaws of death and lived to tweet another day.
I’m not quite sure how I get across to my cat that I do not require her to liberate sanitary towels from the packet and bring them to me. Knowing the determination of cats, if I hid them somewhere out of reach she’d still get to them. I am just praying that she does not do this in front of a really hot date.
Lacking access to entire birds, my cat does the next best thing. If she finds a stray feather on the terrace, she brings that to me. Perhaps if I wait long enough, I’ll have enough to stuff a pillow.
Both my cats love playing with plastic bottle tops. One of them actually bats it back and forth between her front paws, as if playing football by herself. Sometimes they like to bring one to me – perhaps it amuses them to make me play with it.
I’ve heard of cats bringing in some even stranger objects, so what is the oddest gift that your cat has ever brought you?
Top Photo Credit: Hotash