Hunting with a house cat?

[Digital Caveman]

More likely she'd go after mice, squirrels, small birds, ducks, or fish.  I have seen all of these bagged by felines.  A cat doing a back flip to catch a songbird is really quite funny.  No idea how the duck was caught though.

[Pappy]

House cat that are just out  mostly for a stroll I don't mine but a feral cat that are really out to hunt and feed them self usually don't last long around my farm,and man can they hunt, they will devastate the baby rabbits and young quail , of course they ant much worse than Turkeys, they will eat anything that moves and cover every inch of ground to find it.  the TWRA won't admit it because they love their Turkey but we had lots of quail in our area until they reintroduced the Turkey. 
 Pappy

[boomhowzer]

That's an excellent point, Pappy. One of the downfalls of keeping a cat as a hunting companion is they're out there when you're not, wrecking havoc on the small game population. We originally acquired our cat to take care of a mouse problem. Now though, I don't see as many rabbits hopping around and the only 13-striped ground squirrel I've seen this year was in her mouth. Last year I killed a half dozen of the little buggers, and I about tripped on a rabbit every time I walked out the door. I don't think she's killed a full sized rabbit yet, but I'd imagine she's raided a burrow or two. There are still plenty of red squirrels and chipmunks around, they're too fast for her, but I think you're right, Pappy. Keeping a house cat as a hunting companion is going to mean having to travel further afield to find small game. Of course, I do love shooting red squirrels, so that should keep us occupied until deer season.

Also, fish? tradcraftsman, you've seen a cat catch a fish? I like fishing too, maybe I'll take the cat out on the boat!

[Digital Caveman]

To be precise, the neighbors cat left fish on their porch.  They may well have been picked up dead on the shore, we had big fish kills in the spring.  Still was kind of funny though.

[archeryrob]

I assume you are hunting only with a bow? I have a single shot shotgun that keeps #6 for aerial problems and 00 buck near it for land based chicken problems. The sound of the shotgun clicking open makes the cats all big eyed and scurying for a hole or diving under the deck. They aren't much for the bolt action 22 mag or throwing a mag into the AR and pulling the charging handle either to drill a ground hog in the garden.

Now my Lab, I have to tell her to sit still and shut up or shes trying to get in front of me. But she'll bring it back, unless its inside the fence.

[WhistlingBadger]

My wife's cat used to leave rabbit heads inside the garden shed occasionally.  That was back when she actually did things.  Now she's too fat and lazy to be bothered.   

[boomhowzer]

Yes, this being the primitive archery forum, I am hunting with a bow. And just like your dog, when I grab my bow off the rack and string it, she comes running, tail up, pawing at my quiver of arrows, ready to run out the door. She doesn't fetch, but she knows we're hunting, there's no question about it.

As far as rabbit decapitation goes, she's not there yet. I did have a cat in Oregon that once killed a squirrel, disemboweled it, cut off its head and tail, and arranged all of the disparate pieces on a cutting board in our outdoor kitchen. She did the same thing with a blue jay on the welcome mat in front of our house. Both wings were detached and layed next to the bird. Cats are weird. Or at least that's what you think. Then you read James Frazer's "The Golden Bough" and you're like, man, people are weird too...

[TimBo]

I can't remember where I read this, but somewhere there is an online account of a bowhunter stalking deer with his cat.  The cat would give him a dirty look over its shoulder if he was moving too fast, and would give some sort of indication when a deer was near.  I especially remember that if the hunt ended with a downed deer, the cat would waltz up to it and sit on it (counting coup?).  Maybe this was an urban legend, but the whole thing sounded very cat-like!

[boomhowzer]

TimBo! I've scoured the internet and never ran across such an account. Can you find it again? I have literally googled everything you could imagine (including some things I wish I hadn't) and have found nothing but cat blogs and feline psychology mumbo jumbo. I would love to read a cat/human deer hunting story, even if it was completely made up.

[TimBo]

Sorry, we were out of town on a camping trip and I just saw this.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to turn up the original story, although I found something a bit similar on Archery Talk.  I have tried and failed before to re-locate it...maybe I dreamed it! 

[boomhowzer]

Archery Talk? That sounds sweet. What is it?

[Don W]

not exactly hunting with a cat, but sure lends credence to trying it.

https://www.michigan-sportsman.com/threads/curiousity-killed-the-cat.112473/


and another (from archery talk 
"I have actually taken my cat with me on hunts....not kidding"
https://www.archerytalk.com/threads/do-cats-scare-deer.1035225/

[boomhowzer]

"A deer view mirror" the guys says, what a great way to put it. 'butternut' was his moniker. Unfortunately, he's been banned from the site... And the other guy on Michigan-Sportsman actually got a deer because of a cat!

Wow, what a glorious day. Finally, someone else revering the house cat as a hunting companion. The common feline finally finding its way out of obscurity and into the limelight of wood lore. Thanks for digging this stuff up, Don! I hope to have similar success stories to share in the future!

[TimBo]

That second link is the one I found today.  Maybe it's the same guy...

[boomhowzer]

Maybe its the same guy! I hadn't thought of that. I'll assume it is. The butternut lodge lounger. He's my hero..