I feel terrible, my cat caught a bird today...

Adelaide, Australia
March 14, 2016 6:49am CST
The bird died and it could have been prevented if I hadn't been so lazy. My cat is a gorgeous, yet naughty cat. He is mostly an indoor cat, but I let him outside for a couple hours on most days to get some sun. He always stays close to home, he likes to hang out in my front yard which is fenced off. I usually put a collar on him before letting him outside, which had an I.D tag and bell. The bell is enough to let birds know that he is around. I should mention that I feed birds in my front yard and have some familiar birds (both pigeons and rainbow lorikeets) that regularly visit. I never let my cats outside when I feed the birds, which is at a regular time each day, so they know when to come. However, a lot of birds like to hang around, often when my cats are outside. This isn't a problem when my cats have their collars with the bells on, every time my cats move, it alerts the birds. Well today I forgot to put the collar on my cat before letting him out. That was mistake number one. After a while I could hear the rainbow lorikeets making a lot of noise, which usually means trouble and I usually check on things. Today I didn't, I was busy working on some things and needed to focus. The noise went on for close to an hour before I decided to check and it turns out that my cat caught a pigeon, and killed it. If I had put his collar on, it probably never would have happened but my second mistake was not checking on the birds when they first started making the noise. If I had, the pigeon may have still been alive, injured but alive. When I found the pigeon, there were feathers all over my front yard and it was tucked behind a pot-plant. It was stiff and ants were already eating it. Poor thing, I know that this was my fault. I try to be a responsible pet owner and make sure my cats don't do this kind of thing but today I slipped up by not putting his collar on, then not paying attention when the other birds started going nuts. I feel like crap now.
8 people like this
8 responses
@JohnRoberts (109857)
• Los Angeles, California
14 Mar 16
It's a cat doing what a cat does. You shouldn't feel bad since the bird was a pigeon as pigeons are overpopulated and a problem as least here in the big city. The cat contributed to Mother Nature's balance.
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69416)
• Germany
14 Mar 16
Your cat isn't naughty. It's only a cat with normal instincts. The incident was indeed only your fault.
1 person likes this
• Adelaide, Australia
15 Mar 16
Lol, I say that he is naughty not because of catching the bird, but because he is the type of cat who will knock things off shelves or attack my feet when I am not paying him enough attention. Catching the bird was just him being a cat, I should have been more careful.
@irishidid (8688)
• United States
14 Mar 16
The cat was just doing what comes naturally. I wouldn't feel bad about it.
1 person likes this
• United States
14 Mar 16
I am sorry this happened my friend. Yes the cats are quick as a wink, no stopping them. You are kind to feed the birds my friend. It really is not your fault as you did not mean for it to happen, but I would feel the same way. Hope you can get over it soon.
1 person likes this
@softbabe44 (5816)
• Vancouver, Washington
15 Mar 16
Sorry to hear about the bird.
1 person likes this
@Mike197602 (15487)
• United Kingdom
14 Mar 16
Cats are killers, it's their nature. My cat would kill anything he could...rabbits, birds, rats and mice and anything else I wouldn't worry about it.
1 person likes this
@alchemistrx (2547)
• Philippines
14 Mar 16
Well,lesson learned.
1 person likes this
@hoong143 (1397)
• Malaysia
14 Mar 16
I think we are hard to avoid cats catch birds.
1 person likes this