Cat As Natural Hunter

Whether taught by its mother or left to fend for W itself when very young, the cat quickly discovers the trick of catching its prey. The exercise is carefully planned. First the cat locates its victim. It knows the places the mouse or other creature frequents and, moving downwind of it creeps up, ears pricked. Suddenly the cat is seized by an almost imperceptible trembling.

The rear end twitches from side to side, while it seems to dig its claws into the ground. It judges the distance by sight and suddenly it bounds. The back legs provide the motive force for the leap while the front are left free to grab its victim. It gives its prey a bite on the nape of the neck, between the vertebrae, to kill it quickly if not instantaneously.

If the prey is large -a rat for instance -the cat will fight to the end and not back off. The cat was born to hunt. It is an instinct which still survives when it no longer has to hunt to eat. Without it the cat would not have survived in the wild. And even today we have invented no better method of exterminating rodents than the services of a cat. The cats does not kill for pleasure -it kills because it knows that that is its job.