Feline critter captures – I've been keeping track

Dorah's capture

Dorah brought this one
onto the deck.
I released it – all 61cm of it!

I was curious about the prey the cats manage to snag.

Mine bring their prey home, often into the Muskoka Room, Dorah comes in through the cat door with her catches.

Dorah dumped another field mouse in the hall, including grass and dirt. She meows as she comes down the hall, proudly announcing her capture! Twice they've been alive, and I've put them back outdoors!

shrew

The other day she brought in a live field mouse, who escaped into the basement for a day. Hubby saw it run by when he was down there working out! They captured that one at night.

The other day, we were sitting watching a DVD, looked down and there between us on the carpet was a live deer mouse. I took it outside!

The American Bird Conservancy claims that they KNOW this:

We now know that outdoor cats are responsible for the deaths of far more birds than previously thought (up to 3.7 billion every year).

They've extrapolated from some data, and truly don't have actual data. Its intent is to rile up bird lovers, methinks. I questioned their 'facts.' Cats as predators; we're meat eaters, too
A UK study claims far fewer, 275 million prey (not just birds) per year in the UK. They just don't know. On our 16 acres, there are a lot of mice! This is a different situation than in a city, as well.

I had some dippy tree-hugger university biology student demanding I post her hostile, puerile, disparaging comments, after an insulting debate on a Facebook bird lovers site. I just wanted people to question the claims. I was blocked by the bird lovers page administrator on FB, as they didn't like reading my opinion.

This Kellie S. came to my blog and demanded I post her 12 rude comments. I've since deleted them, on my good friend Kay's advice. People would rather get angry over misinformation.
This dippie broad wrote 1000 words on one comment- explaining how an ecosystem works and how I am interfering with it. For heaven's sake!

Dorah is looking for her snake!

It was about 10"

I've been keeping track of critters, just out of curiosity and wanting some hard data.

They tend to bring them home, either on the deck, or right indoors, where prey cannot escape. I find some on the driveway, but mostly they bring them to the house. They are well-fed on expensive hypoallergenic cat food, but this is an instinct and cannot be denied.

Total 49 critters

Data

• The four cats have caught 49 critters; 40 mice, a vole, 4 snakes (Dorah), a baby rabbit, 3" caterpillar, and a chipmunk.

• They've caught 5 birds from June 29 -  Aug. 27, with two that I released.

Cedar waxwing

5 birds