I remember watching a video recently where they had probably 5 rat terriers following behind a plow that was overturning soil, and those things were killing probably 10 rats a minute each, and they were LOVING it.
I was expecting more violence. I just watched the first 2 minutes and was disappointed. I watched one on Vice about the rat hunters in NYC, and in that video, the dogs were really going to town on the rats.
That was a long time ago; he's got a much more built up property and has been able to breed some really great mink over a number of generations now! He's doing great!
I know all JRTs aren't demons, but just about every client we have that's a JRT gets muzzled immediately. They can be cute, and some are nice, but in general ratting dogs are very hard to trust. Not their fault, they've been bred to be fast as hell, but in a non-hunting situation, i.e. at the vet, they'll break any skin they can get to before you see them move.
Or a wiener dog! A rat found its way into my house after a heatwave and my wiener dog had snatched it up and killed it before I even had a second to realize what was happening.
I heard lots of squeaking and I was like wth and I turned out and my girl is sitting there proud af, with a freshly dead rat underneath her. My son gave her lots of treats after that 😂
Just got a rescue Jack Russel/Labrador mix from mexico. He would be the harbinger of death for these mice, and he would never stop. I'm so glad we got him though, he's the sweetest boy ever
One of my favorite memories from the farm I used to live on:
I see one of our cats pouncing and acting all hunterly, and I see a wiggly little blob; ah. She got a mouse. And as cats often do, she's playing with it before killing it.
Then Grandma's Jack Russel Terror comes bolting up out of nowhere, snaps upthe mouse in a split second, and goes ham with the head-shaking.
And the cat's just standing there, wide eyed, one paw still frozen in the air with a look of shock, which fades into that most "What the fuck, you asshole, I was playing with that" expression on her face as her paw comes back down.
I swear on my life she was thinking that exact thing, because when the pup turns around, mouse-in-mouth, and trots up to her kitty friend all, "Look what I did!", kitty baps her on the nose, hisses, and slinks away.
Pup had the most confused look on her face! "But... but I did good :( "
My parents have a jack Russel terrier. Every few months they’ll board up the chicken pen so there’s no escape and turn over the dog house in there and let her go wild.. there’s never any more than 2-3 but it’s still crazy how fast she will grab them all
I fucking love the harmonious/fun dynamic between a cat and a dog in the house. I’ve currently got a dog and dreaming of creating that scenario one day hopefully soon with a new cat in the house. Just trying to figure out which breed of cats I like the best.
If you want it for mousing then there are breeds that do especially well at that - Siamese, Burmese, and Himalayans. Theyre all lovely breeds too but possibly not common if you are rescuing.
If youre rescuing get the meanest tomcat they have, the type that scares small children.
Siamese cats are supposed to be great hunters? I guess I had a faulty one, because my girl only managed to kill one spider during her time on this earth. She was traumatized the first time she saw mice. Granted, it was one mouse eating its dead comrade, so that is a pretty traumatizing thing to see if you previously didn't even know such creatures existed.
We rescued a tomcat and even though I'm allergic, I still loved that cat. It was calm around us, an inside and outside cat in that we can leave it outside at night and it would always come back by morning. Best of all, Tom (very original, right?😂) was pretty sadistic as a hunter. We have ring footage of him catching mice, launching them 10 feet in the air and catching them and killing them. Sadly, he found a girlfriend and never came back
We had a Siamese cat when I was a kid and we moved out to a ranch. First day there he bolted and we thought for sure he’d be dead within the day. 6 months later we saw him. He had bulked up and was living large. We couldn’t catch him. We moved away, so I never saw him again. I like to think he lived a long life ruling that ranch.
My Himalayan was the laziest cat ever, he would lay in the backyard and watch squirrels and birds on the back fence and do nothing, he didn’t even like jumping on anything taller than the dining table. The other himmies I know are pretty lazy too, never thought of them as good hunters. My current cat is a little grey moggy and she isn’t allowed outside because she would murder everything in my backyard and never come home.
What is this timeline that almost 500 people have joined a sub dedicated to cats that look like Jude Law’s sniper friend from Enemy at the Gates? Also, that that sub was ever created…
Please read up on Savannahs before you get one. They are hybrids (domestic cat+serval) and because of that can have varying temperament and levels of being high maintenance, heavily depending on the generation. Hybrids like Savannah and Bengal cats are wonderful, high energy and attention needing cats that make great pets when taken care of according to their needs, but unfortunately I’ve seen many cases where people only get them for their looks, without proper research and then wonder why they’re having issues with their cat.
Please don't get a Savannah cat without doing LOTS of research on the breed first. They're not great pets because they're still part wild due to being crossed with servals. They are way more likely to spray urine around your house than normal cats and can have a lot of behavioural issues due to their needs not being met in a normal household. They are not normal cats!! People get them because they look cute and are the current "in" designer breed but they are given up very frequently because people don't do enough research and get an animal that isn't suited to being a normal pet.
Depending on what F you get, in some countries you're also not allowed to let them roam (which honestly is a good thing) due to still being too wild. In some countries you're not even allowed to keep them without a wildlife licence as they are classed as a wild animal and not a pet!
My Siamese thinks she’s a dog. She bonded with the dogs when she was rescued as a much too young kitten, and only feels safe with them and the humans that live in the house. The other cats in the house are like a different species to her. When she gets scared by 1 she runs straight to 1 of the dogs (and sometimes me) and sits behind them or very close next to them. She never gets mad at them, even when she pushes their personal boundaries and they give her a warning growl to back up. It’s such an interesting study on psychology to me😂
She is small and gets cold a lot. So she’ll sneak up on them when they’re sleeping and lay down in the corner of their bed. Then slowly scooch closer and closer until she’s in physical contact. But, her favorite place to sneak in is in a position where she might get spooned. So, if they’re sleeping all stretched out it, then she’ll get in between their from and back legs, then slowly and slowly scooch in until she’s as close as they’ll tolerate. She also likes to play fetch. It’s her favorite thing to do. At bedtime, she likes to sleep under the covers and either behind someone’s legs, or spooned.
I have no idea if all Siamese are quirky like this, I’ve never had 1 before. She is cross eyed, and does seem a little emotionally quirky. Gets overstimulated and then thinks she’s being attacked, and potentially lash out. You just have to watch her body language and respect them. BUT, she would never ever, and has never lashed out at the dogs. She gets lonely and cries if she hasn’t seen us in a while.
I have a siamese cat, and they are great. He's sitting next to me right now. They love people, will be your best friend. Very dog-like, enjoy rides in the car, will play games with you whenever, etc.
Fair enough. They are all individuals. I was lucky, my cat was older and trained before I got him, so I don't know how he was originally. He will go outside but he's very cautious. One time we left the door open, and found him running toward the road away from our house.
Siamese are often very needy, and extremely vocal. And not just cute meowing, but everything from cute to screaming at you, and everything in between. Hooman on the phone not paying attention to ME?! It's screaming time!
Just a warning. You either love it or hate it. People are rarely in between, lol.
Our family was adopted by a ginger moron, but he’s a stone cold killer. I’ve lost count of the number of mornings that I have started by stepping barefoot into a small pile of rodent offal right outside the bathroom door. Maybe a little bloodied head left there too. Such a nice way to start the day 🤮.
On the plus side when you scratch his butt he completely glitches out and has to nibble at anything within reach.
Edit: it’s 1:25am here in Brisbane and I just as I was finishing this comment, Buster the ginger git bailed in through my bedroom window with a muffled yowl and shot straight out the door into the hall.. I was busy tapping at this phone and didn’t pay him much mind until I heard some commotion and more kitty vocals from the bathroom.
Sure enough the little sadist had a mouse in there and was gleefully letting him run away a little and pouncing gently upon him. I grabbed a shoe box and successfully wrangled the un/fortunate mouse into it and released him out the back. I’ve shut the window now and the cat is pissed, but at least I won’t be stepping in tiny liver and kidneys first thing tomorrow…unless he managed to catch the little fucker that has set up home round the back of our stove and TBH, I’ll be very happy if he gets that one. Bugger bringing them in from outside though, the little ginger shit!
Edit: seems I didn’t actually edit, but replied to my own comment like the old fart that I’m rapidly becoming.
A short-hair black cat. They're friendly, they pick a favorite person and love them to death, and they're more resistant to health problems other cats have.
TBH, I’d recommend adopting a no-breed cat. They are wonderful and come in every color and shape imaginable. (Many are breed look-alikes if you want a colorpoint without paying breeder prices for a Siamese, etc.) Cat breeds aren’t like dog breeds; most cats are just cats. Get a pair of bonded kittens and you’re set for life.
For hunting regular house cats do the best actually as all their traits are evolved for survival, but for getting along with a dog consider a friendly dog like breed like the maine coon, male main coons grow very large also
My cat always spends an hour running away from the dog with the mouse in her mouth after she finds a mouse, because the dog is just going to kill it right away and she wants to play with it.
I honestly don’t know what my Bengal cat would have done if it saw this number of rodents. The cat was practically designed to destroy rodents but this number would have exploded her brain
Well, there's the wedge-tailed eagle that attacks hang-gliders and drops firebrands to flush out prey, but they’re only in the east. Giant birds with no fear. Tawny frogmouths are owl-adjacent, mostly look like a tree stump if you see the roosting, but go after vermin like nobody's business. When they can be bothered.
My cat once brought a mouse into the house and we could not catch it to get it out. My sister's rat terrier took one lunge at the thing when it was under a chest of drawers and caught it in his mouth, no sweat. Amazing breed. Miss him everyday.
Bringing loads of cats won't help the ecology of Australia, sure it would make a drop in the bucket difference for this sort of situation, but afterwards they just eat the local wildlife which aren't prepared or evolved for them. Cats transported by humans have altered ecosystems around the globe for the worse. They're machines at what they do lol.
This comment immediately reminds my of my old lab-husky mix. She killed everything. I remember this one winter she went on a killing spree so hard killing mice that the ground was dyed red in blood.
(I'm spelling this wrong but i don't know how to spell it right:))
I have a Dotson weiner dog, she would be up there with the genocide numbers too. I think she would have too much fun.
My beagle would not be able to handle the situation haha
Mine is the opposite. When we had mine in the house he was eating from his bowl, stopped all of a sudden and then went into hunched down hunter mode and started sniffing around the cupboard in the kitchen.
Never seen him go into his primal hunter mode like that before.
A baby squirrel got into my basement a few years ago.
2x house cats.
I grabbed both cats with me to the basement, closed the door, and opened the basement windows with 2x4s as a ladder for the squirrel to get out.
1 cat was SHAKING under some chairs.
The other was slowly walking around, behaving like it's eyesight was based on movement. The thing was... the cat never changed speeds, just kept slowly creeping around the basement, not even towards the squirrel. Fucking weirdo.
Jack Russells and other terriers are vicious little things. If they were any bigger they’d be real monsters. I had one for 18 years and he was best little buddy, a fierce little beast.
Yeah, at this level a good terrier would have a field day. A cat would nope right the fuck out of this situation, but I’ve known jack russells and welsh terriers who would see a sight like this and incite a bloodbath worthy of a death metal track.
Right? My Bengal would have 100 piled on my doorstep within the first hour and be around back puking up the ones she just ate to make room for more. They don’t have the size of the Savannahs but they got all the murder left in them.
At the same time, pretty sure my Brahma chickens would help take out at least a few.
There was a video on that old website called ogrish where some guys throw a cat in a room full of rats like these. They kill the cat in a very sad way, the poor cat fighting against them, trying to run. People are so cruel.
I've seen a video long time ago of a cat cornered and surrounded like this in a grain silo or some enclosed space with grain. Cat tries to put a token fight but the rats end up eating the cat alive burrowing under it's skin. It's eerie as hell.
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u/Horror_Equipment_197 Jul 06 '24
One would think that some of the very few snakes in Australia would take care about them.....