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karalynn_gw

Snake in the house

KaraLynn
11 years ago

Last night when I got home from work I went inside, fed the cats and went to get changed. In the 10 minutes I was in my bedroom my younger cat, Koneko, inhaled her dinner, ran out the open front door onto the screened in front porch, caught a small ring neck snake, and brought it into the living room to play with! When I came out of my bedroom and went to turn on a light I found her batting at the poor thing while it tried to get some traction on tile floor so that it could escape. What followed was a wrestling match between me and Koneko to see who was going to catch the snake first. Lucky for the snake I won. Now it's out in the front garden and has hopefully learned not to slither onto my front porch!

So you would think that after the snake I'd close the front door so that the cat couldn't find something else to bring inside, wouldn't you? Nope, never even crossed my mind to close the door, I was enjoying the fresh air far to much to do that! A little while later as I'm sitting there playing on the computer and watching TV I notice that Koneko is sitting on the other side of the living room looking at me with something alive dangling from her mouth! As soon as she saw me start to get up she darted off to my bedroom and by the time I caught up to her she'd already let whatever it was go under my bed. Playing keep away with live critters with me like this seems to be a favorite game of hers! So after pulling the cat out from under the bed by her tail I was unable to find the critter amongst the storage boxes I keep under there and had to give up and just hope it came out on it's own.

No sooner had I gotten settled back in the living room then Koneko starts chirping in the bedroom to let me know that she's recaptured her prey and it's time to start the game with me again! This time I was able to get what turned out to be a small, cat fur covered, leopard frog away from her. It also went out into the front garden but sadly was not in the best of shape and may not survive.

After all that I finally shut the front door and opened the one window that still has a screen in it instead!

Kara

Comments (11)

  • KaraLynn
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    And here's Koneko, the cat who lives to keep me on my toes!

  • gardencraze
    11 years ago

    I would surely die if I found a snake in the house.
    Nevermind touching one LOL
    Yesterday I amost flip when I came close to a huge black racer in the garden Whewwww!!

    Carmen

  • coffeemom
    11 years ago

    Koneko rules!

  • judyk_2008 9a DeLeon Sprs. (NW Volusia)
    11 years ago

    Your cat looks like my Jack. He is also a big hunter. Lately his favorite is rabbits. Usually he delivers them partly eaten on my back porch, but early last Sunday one got away on the porch. I was trying to catch the two cats and dog while the poor thing was trying to hide. I eventually caught it and released it back into the woods.

  • KaraLynn
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Carmen, my dad was teaching me to properly handle any type of critter we could find in the yard, including small snakes, by the time I could walk. When I find a snake in my garden I get all excited and want to hold it! I just don't want them in my house where Koneko will play with them to death and beyond. I can understand being afraid of them though as my mom really doesn't like snakes although her fear has faded over the years.

    Yep, Koneko rules alright! For such a plump kitty she sure can move when she wants to!

    Judy, that must have been a sight to see! And I thought I had it bad with wrestling just one cat over who was going catch whatever poor critter had the misfortune of getting into my house! I can't imagine what it must have been like to try to wrestle two cats and a dog at the same time.

    The plus side to having such an active hunter in the house is that I rarely ever see any bugs inside. Any bugs that do get inside are usually eaten rather quickly. After all, Koneko has to supplement her food intake somehow since I put her on a permanent diet! ; )

  • RetiredFlorida
    11 years ago

    Gorgeous kitty and cute snake. I could never understand why people get so excited (including my wife) when they are so good to have around.

    Had a similar event, multicolor ringed snake crawled across my foot in my laundry. Caught it, identified it, Scarlet King Snake, released it back into my front yard. Haven't seen one since it happened in 94'.

    Darren

  • tinael01
    11 years ago

    Maybe you should think about keeping miss kitty inside Kara? Cats kill up to a billion birds a year. Information is all over the internet...just google it.

    "Cats are in fact having population-level effects," said Steve Homer, a senior policy advisor with the American Bird Conservancy who said he is longtime cat owner himself. "The big picture is that about a third of the birds in the United States are in decline, and cats have been identified as one of the more significant factors in this decline."

    Here is a link that might be useful: Cats Indoors education program by Audobon

  • judyk_2008 9a DeLeon Sprs. (NW Volusia)
    11 years ago

    I've read numerous times against allowing cats outside. I can understand their view. But, I have to say my cat catches far more rodents than birds. (Maybe because we have poultry.) I would rather he catch them than having to put out poison. Jack was a feral kitten and although he is neutered, he would distroy my house if not let outside. Also, I live in the country. When I lived in a community, my cats at the time stayed in for their safety and a courtesy to my neighbors.

  • KaraLynn
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    She was inside the screened in front porch when she caught both the snake and the frog. If anyone was where they shouldn't be it was the snake and frog, not Koneko.

    The only time my cats go outside is when I'm in the garden and they are both trained to stay in the yard and come when I whistle for them. When Koneko does go outside with me she much prefers to go after lizards and the big green grasshoppers that fly. I rescue the lizards from her and let her munch on the grasshoppers. Anytime she catches something she carries it around alive in her mouth until she finds me, makes a trilling/chirping sound, and then plays a game of keep away that usually ends with me fishing both her and the lizard out from under my bed (I always leave the garage door open when the cats are in the garden so that they can go in if something spooks them). Sometimes the lizards get revenge and bite onto her lips and then I have to rescue Koneko from the lizard! My older cat Khyssa does not see what's so great about hunting. The one time she caught a frog she spat it out at my feet with an extremely disgusted look on her face and hasn't hunted since.

  • tinael01
    11 years ago

    You don't owe me an explaination, Kara, and I am not hear to judge. Your post just reminded me of how indescribably sad I felt when I was reading about the cats decimating bird populations. And your one little hunter is not really going to change that outcome anyway. How sad I feel when I know my grandchildren may never hear a songbird or see a flash of blue in a bush.

  • wally_1936
    11 years ago

    As for bird hunting the only ones my cat kills are babies who fall to the ground. When I lived down on the coast those birds took care of themselves by putting fear into my cats. The cats learned to check before going outside as the birds would attack if they were there during the outside visits. I have seen more than one time and place where the birds attacked the cats and taught them to leave them alone.

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