An Owl tried to eat my cat!!!!!

[Piper'sMom]

What the heck????

I come home from work yesterday and everyone is in the front, standing in the driveway.

"Oh, that's nice. They are waiting for me," I think, feeling loved.

Yeah, no.

Apparently an owl had just tried to grab Moxie (the smaller of our 1 1/2 year old cats), missed, and crashed into the window. Moxie ran into the lilac bush, Piper was inside at the time and FREAKED out. Mark said it wasn't the spazy barking she does when somebody comes to the door but the deep, guttural growling she has only done one other time (when a dog accidentally knocked Jada over). He let Piper out and the owl went to sit on one of our trellis but as Piper got closer it flew to a tree in the front.

All the crows were freaking out, Piper was bounding back and forth between the lilac bush and the front of the house, Jada was trying to take pictures and Mark was just shaking his head.

I knew to be careful with kittens and puppies but I honestly didn't think an owl would go after a full grown cat. Also, I thought owls were nocturnal????

[POPTOP]

The owl saw an opportunity and probably with chicks in a nest, went for your poor kitty. You figure an owl can take a large rabbit to it could take a cat. Better check Moxie for any talon punctures.

[barry581]

Owls generally hunt at dawn and dusk. Any of the larger size owls could easily snatch a small cat or dog. It's not just owls you need to watch for, hawks, falcons, and other large birds of prey may see little Fluffy as dinner.

We had a falconer who performed bird control at the base I was stationed at in the UK. I've seen the falcons/hawks they used take seagulls and pheasant right out of the sky. It's really quite brutal when you first see it.

[Piper'sMom]

I checked when I pulled her out of the lilac bush. She was all good

[Piper'sMom]

It was about 5:00 when it happened. I kept her and Henry in the rest of the night. She isn't so vocal about going out but Henry definitely needs to hunt. He brings presents every day. Ugh.

[Snowshoe]

Oh my goodness. I'm all for sharing the planet with wildlife but not my pets as food for them. When Oban was a wee puppy and we walked in the bush owls were one creature I kept a lookout for. Glad your cat is ok, hope the owl is too.

[shellbell]

This was circulating recently:

404 - StoryLine

[SunDance]

An owl carried off one of the Yorkies that live across the main drag from us (our neighbors, who have always had Yorkies, too, told us about that one).

[Charlotte K.]

Great Horned Owls carried off Golden puppies about years ago in northern NJ. They were small field Goldens an old guy had pottying outside. He also had a dovecote, which probably attracted the hungry owls. After the first one went, you would have thought he would gave taken more precautions. We scraped together all the money in my bag and in the grocery budget and bought TWO of the litter. He was just a very old man who had had not planned the litter.

An eagle snatched a big old feral tomcat next to our yard soon after superstorm Sandy. My son came into the house pale, thankful that he had leashed our small Cavalier just before, when he saw the raptor's shadow. He had not seen the black cat at the hedge until it was yowling and airborne.

Owls also hunt skunks.

[Piper'sMom]

Ok. You are all freaking me out just a little. I figured once they were cat sized we just had to keep them safe from the coyotes. We've never had a problem with birds before. I am just hoping that since it's meal was unsuccessful (plus Piper scared the crap out of it) yesterday it goes onto a more fruitful location!