Prey… come in…

I fear the neighbours at the back of the House of Chaos aren’t that happy anymore with the presence of so many frolicky felines. Because they had rabbits.

A few months ago The Mistress observed from the Guest Room (on the 1st floor) Hrimnir playing with something in the garden behind the Garden of Chaos. The Cleaning Scourge was watching too and she exclaimed: “Oh look, he’s chasing a rabbit ! Oh ! Oh that poor rabbit !”
But no, Hrimnir was not chasing it, he was actually playing with it. Imagine that… our fearsome feline hunter frolicking and romping with a rabbit ? Obviously he was having fun. Equally obviously -judging from the frantic hoppings to and fro- the rabbit wasn’t so thrilled about it but had decided to give back as good as it could. Rabbit chasing cat chasing rabbit. You had to have been there…

Cue the Wednesday before last. Again the Cleaning Scourge was present. (why do such things have to happen on Wednesdays so she is there ?) She was in the garden having a quiet satisfying smoke during a well-earned break from the hard work of getting the House of Chaos at least clean enough to not drop dead in. And then all hell broke loose. “Come !” she yelled, “Come and see what Loup-Garou has in his mouth ! Oh the poor little one ! He’s killed it ! Oh woe !”

Loup-Garou was looking immensely satisfied with himself. Every hair on his aging body was exuding a clear and terrible self-congratulation. And indeed his mouth was full… with something as black as himself. Something furry. Something that had one eye open wide and that was shivering. At first glance we though: kitten. But then, as we picked Loup-Garou up by the scruff of his nape -forcing him to drop his prey in the process- it set off hopping instead of running. A rabbit ?

Yah. A frantic, shivering, hopping-like-mad, long-eared, black-as-night rabbit. And cute too. Bleeding a bit as well. Miracle of miracles Lou hadn’t killed it, but had somehow decided to bring his prey home and finish it off there at leisure. Unfortunately for him we decided that a clean kitchen should remain a clean kitchen. And so The Mistress grabbed Lou again by the scruff, locked him up in the Kitchen of Chaos and went in search of the traveling cage. (With Frankendrolleke having been so ill lately, and Frankinneke having been sterilized the day before it was close at hand.) Grumpy Man made a dash for the little hopper but it proved rather elusive. And the Garden of Chaos proved to be full with interesting hiding places as well. While in the meantime the Kitchen was full with one offended -thus angry- kitty and no way out.

And so a very interested Freya was drafted for the catch. With her deftly flushing out the poor rabbit from where he could not reach it, Grumpy Man could soon catch it and deposit it into the traveling cage. Where it immediately crawled into a corner and sat there panting. The poor tyke. It was a sweet little thing, didn’t bite at all, thus it must belong to people. And because we knew the neighbours behind had rabbits Grumpy Man was sent off with the catch in order to find out whether it happened to be one of theirs.

Their reaction:
“Yes. It’s ours. But it was in its cage.” *unbelief*
“It isn’t anymore.” *shrug*
“But how did it get out ?” *shocked unbelief*
“Ask our boys I guess” (with ‘boys’ Grumpy Man meant our feline friends)
“But it was in its cage !” *really shocked unbelief*
*sigh* “How strong is that cage ?”

Yes. Sigh. How to deal with that ? Obviously our cats had discovered the presence of fluffy hop-arounds and decided to take a closer look. And even more obviously the hunters amongst them have discovered interesting ways of interacting with said fluffy hop-arounds. Like somehow getting them out of the cage and inviting them home for dinner. Free ride included.

Because a few days later I found one very dead little white rabbit on the floor of the Kitchen of Chaos. And one very smug looking Isegrim. Ain’t he the big boy ?
Wasn’t he surprised when I did praise him but then took the dead baby out and into the garbage can ? That floor was clean Izzy !

And several days after that we caught Bean Sidhe in the Garden of Chaos happily munching away at… the black bunny. Rest in pieces poor creature. Sometimes, it seems, Mother Nature is cruel. But animals are just animals and us simians should not anthropomorphize them too much – you can’t expect a kitty not to chase prey. You can, however, build a sturdy cage in which Mr. Fluffy can be kept safe. The cat is predator. The bunny is -alas for the poor mite- prey.

Speaking of appearances and disappearances, we had a worry during the same period. As mentioned above, the Tuesday before that Wednesday we had Frankinneke neutered. That evening she disappeared. She stayed away for a full week ! Fortunately the Man In White had used special stitches because he reasoned that she was too feral to be trusted for removal of stitches while awake. It had been difficult enough to give her a shot for the surgery (the poor thing clawed her way out of my arms and into his curtains when his phone suddenly rang) but a few minor scratches in my hand and on my coat later she was slowly nodding off in the travel cage. The Man In White said it was better not to repeat the ordeal. So the stitches he used will dissolve on their own. We figure she had been shocked by the strange events and the pain and had thus fled the House. But now she is back, a bit thinner and one of the stitches a bit inflamed (for which -thankfully- I have antibiotics which -even more thankfully- she actually eats), but still enormously fond of scritches and cuddlings.

Frankinneke is also the only cat I have every encountered who does NOT scream her lovely head off when traveling in the car. Weird.

Picture below:

Having seen how the simians praise enterprising kitties who bring home freshly caught prey, our youngest feline denizen decided not to be outdone and came home with an impressive piece of… boiled bone. Well done little hunter. As I am typing this he’s happily gnawing on it, but what you don’t see is the 3 female feline denizens of the House of Chaos keeping an eye on things around him. Protective ?
Naaaaah…. figuring out how to rob the tyke more likely…

And it’s weekend again… time’s not crawling here in the House of Chaos, it flees ! Let’s visit the Carnival of the Cats (hosted by Kashim & Othello and Salome), Weekend Cat Blogging (hosted by Julies Mind Over Matter), the Bad Cats Festival of Chaos (once a month, hosted by Nikita), the Cat Blogosphere, and the Friday Ark.