I've been a night owl for decades, and if not doing something interesting at night get minor to major league bouts of 'I gotta get out of here for awhile, like NOW'. This often happens after midnight, much to Mrs. KG's chagrin. Often, when in season I just grab a rod and we head for the beach with the labs. An hour or so later, I settle down and we take the back roads home. There are many critter sightings on these back road travels. Copious foxes, rabbits, deer, skunks, possums, racoons, coyotes, rodents, amphibians, etc. As often as not, by the time I pull into the driveway I'm the only one left awake. Last night, however, all four of us were awake en route home, and lo, here's a pair of eyes in the road.

I slowed down, as I always do, and saw soon enough a spotted fawn in the high beams. No mama to be seen. It was able to get around OK, if a little wobbly. All of us were right in front of someone's well-lit house with even better lit driveway. Houses are at least 100 yards apart there, more like 200-300. As the dogs were grumbling at the sight of the little deer and A was oohing and aahing, we watched as the fawn slowly made its way into the bright lights in the driveway. I assured A that its mom was likely very close, and probably had ducked back into brush/woods when I came down the road, and that all would be well after we broke off. Except that just as I was pulling away, I saw a big old house cat emerge from the shadows. Pretty clearly a house cat, as opposed to feral, IMO. It was obviously stalking the fawn from the lawn and shrubs, moving all tactically and stealthy and staying low and in the shadows. For a moment I thought to go out into that person's driveway to put the fear--or the boot--to the cat, but dismissed the idea as an obvious bad one.

As I pulled away from the scene the fawn was wobbling into the shadows behind the house in a semi-straight line with the cat now 30' away and closing. I hope mama got over there ASAP and put hoof to the cat or something but it had me thinking about how a fawn would do against a concerted attack by a house cat solo. I'd say the fawn was maybe 20 pounds and the cat looked like around 12. If I had to guess I'd say a healthy fawn would have a good chance of surviving an attack, but maybe not such a good chance of surviving what I imagine would be a series of raging infections that would likely result from scratches and bites. Thoughts?

Mmmmmnn?

I wonder if those homeowners have video of the encounter?

And good thing you didn't field goal that cat. That WOULD have been caught on video no doubt and the MA ASPCA, HSUS, and cat lovers everywhere would have been after the Ninja Cat Kicker.

You should have seen the Fox, rat Terrier fight this morning it was a chit show.

LOL. No doubt!

Hey, I'm going to make Menudo tomorrow, if you want I'll send you some.

What, no video for us?

Did George win ??? Also, do y’all have cats in the house to Roger? And if so, do they interact with George?

Lol, I grabbed George by the nape of his neck and back and Suzie jumped up and latched onto his back paw I had to kick her to to get her to let go. Glad I didn't hurt her, she was just doing what terriers do. George is bigger and faster so if I hadn't got them pulled apart it wouldn't have been good.

LOL.

yes have cats, George stays in my dad's part of the house but sometimes gets over here when my dad opens the door, then it's a chit show.

LOL. I bet.

George gets along with Jumper my Dad's beagle, the cats just run and hide when he gets over here.

Is it cat menudo?

Was in Wallmarto last night.


Honey comb tripe they called it?



4(!) dollars a pound!

yes. a little cheaper here.

I bet that would be a good scrap, both of them sound like tough little buggers, lol.

Wasn't Menudo one of them there fahg boy bands?

maybe so never heard them, what do they sound like?

Was 2.89lb here Jim.

How was it?

I would like to try it someday.

just starting to make it, takes about 4 hours to cook.

kamo gari;
Top of the morning or rather good afternoon in your locale, I hope that other than marauding house cats this finds you well.

Regarding your query as to whether house cats will attempt to take a fawn or not, I'll offer the following video from 11 years ago in Cranbrook, BC, which is 6 hours and 5 valleys east of us.



As a lifetime "cat guy" I would opine that Sylvester there was absolutely trying to figure out how to kill that fawn.

When the old doe comes to intervene, she's already got the dog in mind as the primary threat, which is why Sylvester doesn't get the treatment the dog gets.

We had several occasions where the yard mulies would be goosing our cats down the driveway. We watched a mulie doe chase a good sized raccoon up a Ponderosa Pine one morning too,

Oh, we also watched while a doe taught her twin fawns to chase our cats back onto the deck, which of course the cats didn't appreciate, but that's life in the BC sticks.

When our girls were little, we had bear rules in the yard and momma deer rules too. Mulies especially can be really brave when it comes to defending fawns.

Anyways, that's my thoughts on the matter sir, which may not have any bearing on east coast whitetails and house cats.

All the best to you all.

Dwayne

Amazing Dwayne,

I've never seen that video before.

And I'd agree, that cat just couldn't figure out where it could bite that fawn. A bit bigger prey than it was used to.

Valsdad;
Good morning my cyber friend - I believe we're in the same Pacific time zone?

Yes for sure when it came out there were folks saying how "cute" it was that the cat was licking the fawn...

Our girls were still in high school then, but both grew up hunting and watching "nature" do it's thing, so we all said, "No, that cat's just figuring out how best to kill it without getting hurt itself".

We have a small female grey tabby who is now 17 and pretty much retired to the house and deck, though at times she'll come out as far as my shop. In her day she was a killer and brought home one adult duck, a nearly full grown marmot, full sized Nuttall's Cottontails and untold numbers of pack rats. Mice of course too.

The best "pay per view" fight was the marmot by far and away. It wasn't interested in going softly into anyone's good night thanks much!

I recall when I was a kid, my Fox Terrier tied into a rather large, most likely male muskrat. I heard the commotion in the yard, grabbed my single shot Cooey .22 and waded into the fray. It got mighty western what with me dragging the bleeding Fox Terrier back with one hand, trying to shove the single shot bolt .22 into the muskrat, shoot it and then of course rinse and repeat!!!

Anyways, we were talking about cats and fawns, not dogs and muskrats, but yes indeed I do believe we're on the same page... even though I did skip ahead to the next chapter as usual for me.

All the best to you all this Sunday sir.

Dwayne

Hey my friend, great tales and thanks for the input, which was very interesting and informative, as usual. The fawn we saw was bigger than the one you posted the video of by a good 50%. Judging by the cat's actions, I'd wager that an attack on the fawn we saw was inevitable, but again I'd guess that the doe was close by and ready to step in. Or stomp in, I should say. I'm a lifelong cat fan myself and over the years owned about 10 of them. Miss Mits-A-Bits, a tortoiseshell, was 22 or 23 when she went off to the long sleep but in her prime was a dedicated killer. She'd tackle mice, birds and squirrels, mostly--and the latter didn't go easily at all--but she did bring home a city bunny, once, too.

My goodness that dog got the stuffing knocked out of it. Mom was all business there, using both fore and hind legs to stomp and thrash away at the threat (the wrong one!). She was determined to punish that bad dog indeed. Thanks for sharing that. My first time seeing it.

Hi Dwayne and others coming down my driveway in Midway one morning a saw a cow elk chase a black bear up a big yellow pine tree, it amazed me that the bear retreated instead of attacking , Cow and calf walked away.