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My cat, Mugen, made his first kill today. In spite of the fact that he never goes outside - except in a chicken-wire run - he managed to catch a Song Sparrow.

I was out at the time. When I came home I found a blizzard of small dark feathers all over the Turkish carpet. There was no blood, nor were there any visible wounds on the bird.
Before burying the bird in the back yard, I scanned him, using a china bowl to block the outside light.

I can't be angry with the cat. He is only following his instincts. But the loss of the bird is sad. He got into the run a month or so ago, but I was home that time and managed to shoo him out the door before the cat could get at him. Of course I can't be sure it was the same bird, but there are so few of his kind hereabouts...

My Border Collie viewed the situation with a sort of grave distaste. She stepped gingerly over the scattered feathers, and viewed the tiny body with worried eyes. She is not a working dog, but she seemed to feel a kind of silent horror. I wondered if her ancestors gave her a whispered message of outrage that anything wooly or feathered could come to such an end on her home place.

Certainly she shows no hesitation when presented with her weekly raw chicken-back. She crunches delightedly through bone, sinew and flesh. But the sparrow was shunned. Only she knows why she did not eat it. Only the cat knows why he didn't either. Perhaps he simply did not have time to consider that option before I came home, lifted the tiny lifeless body, and with evident sorrow, bore it away.

[Tuxedodog]

We also have an outside run for the cats with a pet door. You would think the birds and small animals would avoid a cage full of predators, but we have had more than a few "suicides" from birds, voles, and somehow more than a few squirrels have gotten into the house and met their maker. Try to explain to the vet how you found an inside only cat eating a squirrel.