{"id":1781,"date":"2017-02-13T03:37:22","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T11:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1781"},"modified":"2017-02-13T03:37:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T11:37:22","slug":"mindful-monday-the-hunting-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1781","title":{"rendered":"Mindful Monday \u2013 The Hunting Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1532\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1532\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1532\" src=\"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alaska2011-156-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alaska2011-156-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alaska2011-156-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alaska2011-156-375x500.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Alaska2011-156.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1532\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Is your cat a hunter? You probably see hunting skills even in your house cats\u2014as they stalk, leap, and pounce on their toys or you when you walk past. Our two foo-foo house kitties\u2014both females\u2014will annihilate a poor moth, fly, or bug that finds its way in. But usually after a lot of teasing and tormenting. Gosh those cute, fluffy, balls of fur can be ferocious.<\/p>\n<p>I came across an article this week featuring the best hunting breeds in cats. I found it interesting and thought you would, too. Among those breeds thought to be the best hunters are, the Turkish Angora, Manx, Burmese, Siamese, Japanese bobtail, American shorthair, Maine Coon and, believe it or not, the Persian.<\/p>\n<p>I actually had a purebred Persian once who presented us with a mouse one morning when we woke up. There, that beautiful shaded-silver Persian sat ever so prim next to the bed looking at us through huge green eyes, a dead mouse at her feet. She was so proud!<\/p>\n<p>Female cats are purported to be better mousers and ratters than males. Although I doubt<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_500\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-500\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-500\" src=\"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/smokey2-023-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Smokey, the inspiration for this series\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/smokey2-023-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/smokey2-023-375x500.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/smokey2-023.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-500\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smokey, the inspiration for this series<\/p><\/div>\n<p>any cat can out-hunt Smokey\u2014my mom\u2019s part ragdoll cat. He regularly brings her lizards, birds\u2014even humming birds\u2014and baby gophers. At the age of 95, my mom still occasionally chases down and rescues a bird that Smokey turns loose in the house.<\/p>\n<p>According to one of Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2019s books, the best hunter is a cat with big ears and a long tail.<\/p>\n<p>Now you know, if you need a cat to help rid your barn or garden of vermin, choose a female with Siamese, Persian, Maine Coone, and Manx breeding and make sure it has large ears and a long tail. Good luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is your cat a hunter? You probably see hunting skills even in your house cats\u2014as they stalk, leap, and pounce on their toys or you when you walk past. Our two foo-foo house kitties\u2014both females\u2014will annihilate a poor moth, fly, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1781\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}