I think my cat just killed a possum! (PHOTOS)


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Well, my dad was wandering outside when he came across something dark in the corner of the yard. He took a look, then called me outside. What he had found was a skeleton that had been stripped clean. At first we thought it might have been a baby deer, but now we think it was probably either a dog or possum, judging from the teeth. Here are the photos:

The crime scene:

post-24828-1139172194_thumb.jpg

You can clearly see its skull there, as well as its entrails and its backbone along the lower edge of the image. Upon closer investigation, we found that its brain was completely bashed in and that its lower jaw bone was in a different spot, suggesting that it was ripped off during the attack.

The suspect:

post-24828-1139172205_thumb.jpg

Our cat, Buddy. About 7 years old. What's most amazing is that even with the bell on his collar, he's still able to take down birds and, apparantly, possums with ease. He was bitten by a possum about 4 years ago, and was in pretty bad shape for a while (bite was infected). We're thinking it might have been a revenge killing.

The suspect returns:

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The suspect has returned to the scene of the crime! You can see my dad hovering over the skeleton as the suspect circles his prey.

The suspect is freed:

post-24828-1139172440_thumb.jpg

A final look at the suspect, with a look about him saying that he knows he got away with something. Who knows when this killer will strike again! But, for now, he seems pretty content sleeping on my sofa.

I doubt that a cat can take on something that size AND strip it clean. Cat's (in my experiance) dont eat everything if they can't fit it down their throat whole (they would with something as small as a mouse).

Hmm, maybe it's possible my cat killed it and something else ate it. Or, that it was killed by something different all together. My cat's been getting kinda fat, lately, and hasn't really been eating much of our kitty food, so who knows? Still, it was kinda cool to look at! :yes:

Hmm, maybe it's possible my cat killed it and something else ate it. Or, that it was killed by something different all together. My cat's been getting kinda fat, lately, and hasn't really been eating much of our kitty food, so who knows? Still, it was kinda cool to look at! :yes:

Maggots could of finished the job. But it must of taken you a while (3-7 days) to find the corpse if that way the case!

Hmm, maybe it's possible my cat killed it and something else ate it. Or, that it was killed by something different all together. My cat's been getting kinda fat, lately, and hasn't really been eating much of our kitty food, so who knows? Still, it was kinda cool to look at! :yes:

I think cats don't eat something they haven't killed ... at least that's why I saw once.. when a dog killed a rat and left it on the ground and the cat didnt bother haha

:p

Your dad is a STEELERS fan!! Yeah... Go STEELERS!!

Anyways, if your cat did that, that's an impressive cat...

Hell yeah! He grew up in Pittsburgh, and I went to school there for a while, so we're both Steelers fans. I'm wearing a jersey right now!

No blood on the animal?

On my cat? Never noticed anything, but he spends most of the day outside, so he might have just licked himself off. *shrugs*

I doubt that a cat can take on something that size AND strip it clean. Cat's (in my experiance) dont eat everything if they can't fit it down their throat whole (they would with something as small as a mouse).

My cat who is fairly small in size, brought in a full-size pigeon. They also eat every last part of mice and voles, leaving just the stomach.

My cat who is fairly small in size, brought in a full-size pigeon. They also eat every last part of mice and voles, leaving just the stomach.

*Nod* I have 4 cats-They normally bring in all kinds of things, even a garter snake once =/... I think they only leave the stomach perhaps because of the acid? I dunno.

Judging by the size of the skull, I highly doubt it was anything older than a juvenile. It was probably less than a year old. It also seems unlikely that the remains would look like that unless the remains themselves had been there for a while. Or another animal had been able to thoroughly pick the carcass clean.

Last summer, my dogs, one of which happens to be a 140 lb. full German Rottweiler, confronted an adult possum, must have been 2 am. She came into the yard and my dogs instantly went to investigate. I have 2 ferrets so they're used to smaller critters. Of course, she didn't like them looking and started hissing and swatting at them. My Shiba Inu/ Shar Pei mix listened to me and went inside but my Rottweiler wanted to protect everyone, so he grabbed her from above, on her back, almost whole in his mouth. :/ And trust me, adult possums, especially mothers, are actually quite large animals.

I didn't want him to hurt her but he was doing his duty. Luckily, I was able to get him to drop her and of course she played dead, so I hoped. I then noticed 2 babies start to crawl off of her abdomen and started to feel terrible. :| I got him inside and ran to the garage to bring out one of our old dog kennels. I had an old comforter we didn't use so I tossed it in there and proceeded to move the mother and her babies into the kennel, at least for the night.

She hadn't moved when I got back so I used the comforter as a glove and gently pushed her into the kennel. After an hour or so, I went to check on her and she was up and moving so I opened the door and went inside to watch. After a few minutes, she decided to leave and seemed fine. No limping, bleeding, etc. I saw her later the next evening along the same fence she had fallen from the night before. She seemed ok then. I've never seen her since tho, so I do hope she and her babies turned out fine.

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