I understand that it is a Cats natural instinct to please its owner by
bringing its trophy (rodents) to its owner. However, I do not like to
wake up to find a head or half a body left on my floor. (usually the
bathroom and sometimes the shower stall)I never catch him in the act.
I feel that scolding him later is more harmful because he maybe
confused as to what he is being scolded for. I have closed the
bathroom door on occasion but he'll drop his trophy elsewhere. I dread
the possibility of him dropping it at the foot of bed. Is there
anything I can do??

---

Clarification of Question by morningside-ga on 25 Jun 2004 11:21 PDT

Thank you for your useless comments. Keeping a cat indoors is cruel.
Let me know how you supervise a cat outdoors. A rat is not considered
local wildlife either.

---

Clarification of Question by morningside-ga on 25 Jun 2004 12:18 PDT

Where I live (sub-tropical climate) it is necessary to open windows
and doors. I also live on a 1/2 acre of property. I do not have a
problem with cars, poisons or fights. Besides the cat has been living
outside for 2 years. It would be cruel to take away its freedom

My dog never brings in dead anything.

The best way to prevent a cat from bringing things into the house is
to keep the cat indoors all the time. Indoor cats live longer, do not
annoy neighbors, and spare the local wildlife. Most veterinarians and
pet rescue agencies strongly recommend that cats be kept inside, or be
allowed outdoors only with supervision.

Here is a good article on the subject:

http://www.mspca.org/For+Pet+Owners/Pet+Care+and+Nutrition/153.aspx

In what way is keeping a cat indoors cruel?

I would like to agree with Pinkfreud. Indoor cats most certainly live
longer, healthier lives as opposed to their outstide counterparts who
can fall prey to cars, poisons and fights with other animals.

Now I ask you what is cruel about preventing the above tragedies?

Hi morningside,

I located some information for you on a unique invention.  It wasn't
clear whether the product is yet available, or if prototypes were
being made for testing purposes.  At the bottom of my posting, you'll
see contact information.

TechTV did a feature on the invention. The device certainly would do the job!


Quantum Picture
http://www.quantumpicture.com/index.htm

Currently, we are testing software which can deal with a simpler task
of recognizing a cat's face, or rather a profile of the cat's head. We
have built a working device which prevents a cat from bringing in
animals from the street. We call it The Flo Control Project.

http://www.quantumpicture.com/Flo_Control/flo_control.htm  

This is Flo. Her job is testing our image recognition algorithms,
although she might not be aware of this. She goes in and out of the
house through a cat door.

(photo)

She also has a habit of catching various animals, dragging them inside
through the cat door, and letting them loose so they can be chased for
hours. Very cruel. To put an end to this we have built a
computer-controlled device that visually determines if Flo is carrying
anything in her mouth when she enters, and if she does, it simply does
not let her in. Below you see how it looks from inside:

(photo)

This commercially available cat door (Cat Mate) already has an
electromagnetic latch, normally activated by a small magnet that the
cat wears around its neck. We rewired the circuit so that the latch is
controlled instead by the little gray box to the left of the computer,
which is connected to the serial port. But the really interesting
stuff is on the other side of the door.

Click on next at bottom of page...

*****

TechTV recently did a story on our cat door. Be sure to check out the
video they have there (you'll see an icon like the one on the right on
their page). It has some hilarious moments - Squirrel slapping her
owner on the nose while he is trying to explain to her the importance
of being on TV.

http://www.g4techtv.com/feature.aspx?article_key=37142

High Tech Cat Door written by Suzanne Brahm and Matt Markovich, Tech
Live on Friday, January 24, 2003

Image-recognition software keeps kitty's kills outside.


Contact information:

Quantum Picture
P.O. Box 1284
Langley, WA 98260
USA

Email: boris@quantumpicture.com 


Best regards,
tlspiegel

I'm (generally) a fan of allowing cats their freedom, and accept that
they will kill things and sometimes bring them home. That's nature.

I think you have to work along the lines of:

1. Try and contain the cat's access, so that whilst he can come in to
some areas of your house by himself, he can't get into your bedroom
and other 'sensitive' areas until you've checked he's not bringing you
a gift.

2. Praise him when he brings you a gift and drops it in an appropriate
area, perhaps a vestibule or other easy to clean place. I think you
have to accept there's going to be *somewhere* he can drop his
trophies.

3. Ignore him, or be hostile (not angry) when he brings you a gift in
an inappropriate area. Cats are territorial, and while they don't
always learn 'behaviour' they can be very sensitive to territorial
rights and if you are hostile they will avoid 'your' territory.

While this won't stop him bringing you gifts, it might help minimise
the risks of stepping out of bed onto entrails.

Owain

Yep, very humane to let your cat wander about where it can be attacked
by other animals or run over by a car.

It's a cat, an animal that was and has evolved to do what animals do. 
Is it humane that people kill each other?  Do you indoor cat loving
peta people lock yourself indoors all day and stay away from the 'bad'
part of town? Are you all vegetarians??? Morningside,,,it's your cat.
Look in his kitty eyes and decide what's best.  End of rant.

I think it will be hard to keep your cat from bringing home the
trophies.  My smart cat used to carry around a plastic mouse that was
chewed to an unrecognizable shredded ball for years. Cats are
instinctively hunters and once they have reached maturity, very hard
to teach anything(there is just nothing that your cat *needs*).
Nonetheless, I taught my smart cat how to sit, shake hands, lay down,
and roll over in two directions.  But since he's already accustom to
having his way, i think getting him to break this habit is going to
require a lot of consistency.  Much more so than say with a doggy. 
Doggies *need* treats and food...

Cats generally don't care.  If your cat has a treat that he loves(for
my smart cat, it is dried fish), then you have something that you can
praise him with that he'll remember and like.  If not, and you have a
brain dead cat(like my other one, bless her poor little empty head),
you're in for rough sledding but keep trying.

I like the ideas that owain has mentioned.  The only way to teach my
cats is through positive reinforcement of some kind. Negative
reinforcement only seems to work when I'm around, as my cats climb on
the table and enter my bedroom even when they know not to.  When they
see me, all I have to do is snap my fingers and they know it's time to
vacate, but the fact is... I did not change their behavior.  Thus,
when he enters and there are no extras, give him a treat.  When there
are, ignore him and the carcass.  If you catch him bringing it in,
give him some negative reinforcement anyway so he knows it's wrong. 
You won't change the behavior when you're not around, but if you're
within earshot, they'll probably heed you.

The key features of the super high tech cat door and owains idea is
controlling access to the house.  Most animals are creatures of habit,
so if you're lucky and you have a controlled access he'll probably
just drop it in the same place everytime.

I would also suggest taking the items that wind up in places you don't
like and moving them to an outside spot you're ok with, (near your
controlled access entry point), and leaving them there for a day or
two.  Your cat may then begin to deposit the carcasses there instead
of on the dinner table.

Of course, you could always get a pet vulture to pick up what your cat leaves...

;-)

Chugs

I don't know if this will help, but my cat did the same thing. I had
put a small bell on my cat so that I could find her or aleast listen
for where she was. I realized after a while that with the bell on her,
she was unable to sneak up on mice to catch them. Maybe that could
work.

Hi morningside,

I know of one friend I had a long time ago, that used the
cat/collar/bell method and it did work.  If you go that route, please
make sure dear cat has a quick-release collar on.

I found this "cat run" that might solve your problem.
http://www.cat-world.com.au/cat-worldenclosures.htm

And finally, A bit of humor I found on the web.

Cats bring in not-quite deads because they are trying to show their
humans how to hunt. This is purely instinctual:

Phase 1: Cat brings home something dead, generally partially eaten. 
Translation: "I picked this up for you on my way home. I left some for
you to eat. I love you."

Phase 2: Cat brings home something dead yet intact.
Translation: "I was going to eat this but since you never tried it, I
saved it for you. Enjoy!"

Phase 3: Cat brings home a mortally injured, yet still alive albeit
dreadfully injured wee beastie.
Translation: "*sigh*. O.K., let me show you how it's done."

Phase 4: Cat brings home a slightly to not very injured wee
beastie.Let's it loose in the house.
Translation: " O.K., your turn. Get it! Get the mousey/birdie/etc! Any questions?"


Basically this is how they teach their young and their young friends
to hunt and eat.

They consider you as their 'baby huey'- a big, not-too-bright hairless
ape who they love and want to make sure gets fed adequately.

They are essentially telling you that they love you and want to
contribute, by the best way they know how. They HAVE to hunt, but they
want you to be able to as well.

Try 'attacking' and eating a piece of your food in front of them. On
your hands and knees. Play with it, toss it around, and hunch over it
while you 'finish it off'. They will likely regard you with benign
interest, but chances are good that it will show them that you have
learned the lesson, and they will take note.  :)

Best regards,
tlspiegel