{"id":866,"date":"2017-06-07T17:56:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T17:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/?p=866"},"modified":"2021-06-09T17:50:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T17:50:06","slug":"cat-gift-just-mean-cat-considers-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/cat-gift-just-mean-cat-considers-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Gory &#8220;Gifts&#8221; From Your Cats Mean They Consider You Family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ever get a &#8220;cat gift?&#8221; You know, a dead mouse or an injured bird, left for you to discover on your\u00a0back porch? Humans typically handle these incidents with disgust and frustration. After all, it&#8217;s a smelly, icky job to clean up&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2><b>What a cat gift really means&#8230;<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>From a cat&#8217;s perspective, however, these deadly gifts signify much more about their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livescience.com\/34471-cats-dead-animals.html\">evolutionary and physical prowess<\/a>. Consider, for starters, how cats are natural-born hunters. Sure, they were domesticated by humans approximately 10,000 years ago, but the feline species never lost its knack for self-sufficiency in the wild.<\/p>\n<p>Stalking prey is what cats are wired to do. In fact, cats kill billions of small animals a year in the United States alone. This does not mean cats are evil. Not at all. Rather, it means the feline species adapted and excels at maintaining a carnivorous lifestyle.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-870\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cat-and-Mouse.jpg\" alt=\"Cat and Mouse\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cat-and-Mouse-300x200@2x.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cat-and-Mouse-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You might be wondering: &#8220;cats don&#8217;t always eat their catch, though.&#8221; Good point. Many cat owners recall instances when a dead, completely untouched &#8220;cat gift&#8221; is left by their\u00a0home. Rest assured, your cats have an explanation for this type of behavior, especially if they&#8217;re a spayed female.<\/p>\n<p>In the wild, mother cats bring home dead or injured prey as a way of teaching their young how to eat food. For a domesticated female cat, this maternal instinct remains intact. Without kittens to pass their hunting wisdom to, cats turn to the humans whom they consider family. A cat gift is, quite simply, your cat&#8217;s way of fulfilling\u00a0their role as a teacher and a parent. As a member of your cat&#8217;s surrogate family, accept their\u00a0gift with grace &#8211; they\u00a0knew you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespruce.com\/cat-hunting-gifts-553946\">couldn&#8217;t catch it<\/a> on your own.<\/p>\n<p>So, next time a little &#8220;cat gift&#8221; appears, try to bear in mind that, while gross, the thought behind it was sweet and generous. After spoiling your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\">cat with so many goodies<\/a> and so much attention, a\u00a0dead rodent is, with love, your cat&#8217;s gift to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever get a &#8220;cat gift?&#8221; You know, a dead mouse or an injured bird, left for you to discover on your\u00a0back porch? Humans typically handle these incidents with disgust and frustration. After all, it&#8217;s a smelly, icky job to clean&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[175,176,174,177],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-facts","tag-cat-gift","tag-cat-leaves-dead-mice","tag-cat-prizes","tag-hunter-cats"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cat Gift Problems? Dead Rodents On Your Back Porch Signify Your Cat&#039;s Love For You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ever find a dead, little &quot;cat gift&quot; in your home? While gross at first sight, these gifts speak volumes about your cat&#039;s self-sufficiency in the wild.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/cat-gift-just-mean-cat-considers-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cat Gift Problems? Dead Rodents On Your Back Porch Signify Your Cat&#039;s Love For You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever find a dead, little &quot;cat gift&quot; in your home? While gross at first sight, these gifts speak volumes about your cat&#039;s self-sufficiency in the wild.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/cat-gift-just-mean-cat-considers-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KitNipBox\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-07T17:56:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-09T17:50:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Banksy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Diana Regal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Diana Regal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/cat-gift-just-mean-cat-considers-family\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kitnipbox.com\/meow\/index.php\/2017\/06\/07\/cat-gift-just-mean-cat-considers-family\/\",\"name\":\"Cat Gift Problems? 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