Collar Cams Reveal Your Cat's Dirty Secrets

Cognimancer

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Jun 13, 2012
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Collar Cams Reveal Your Cat's Dirty Secrets



Are you positive that your beloved pet isn't cheating on you?

Cats are known for being troublemakers. When they're not sleeping on your face or stealing your credit card to buy games [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118629-Developer-Accused-of-Selling-DLC-to-Cats], they're doing something equally mischievous elsewhere. Now, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated researcher and some feline volunteers, you can get a better idea of what kind of hijinks your cat gets up to when you aren't looking - via adorable collar-mounted cameras.

These three-ounce CatCams, as I like to call them, were affixed to the furry necks of 60 housecats with the permission of their owners. The cats spent about four to six hours outdoors each day for a period of seven to ten days, accumulating over 2000 hours of video footage. The results did not disappoint: the cameras revealed a surprisingly high level of predation on wild animals, and 85% of the cats demonstrated risky behavior throughout the week.

"Cats aren't just a danger to others," reports USA Today, "they're also a danger to themselves. The cats in the study were seen engaging in such risky behavior as crossing roadways (45%), eating and drinking things they found (25%), exploring storm drains (20%) and entering crawl spaces where they could become trapped (20%)." Male cats were found to be more daring than females, and younger cats used less caution in their escapades.

The pets surprised experts with the number of kills they racked up over the week. Cats ate 30% of the critters they killed, and brought about a quarter of the carcasses home as trophies. However, nearly half of the cats' victims were left behind to rot - a statistic that researchers had not taken into account when estimating the effects of housecats on local wildlife.

Perhaps most shocking was the scandalous revelation that four of the 60 sampled cats were leading double lives. Unbeknownst to the cats' proper owners, whole different families of humans were welcoming the wayward pet as a regular visitor. "I feel like one of those women on the talk shows," said Amy Watts, the owner of one the two-timing cats. "'My husband has two wives' ... my cat has two families!"

Source: USA Today [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-08-06/house-cats-kill/56831262/1]

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Seotinach

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Jun 7, 2010
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Being a part of a family that routinely had visiting cats from neighbors wander into our house, stay for an hour or two, then leave again, I'm kind of amused that people didn't know cats do this. A lot.
 

Section Crow

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Aug 26, 2009
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Anyone who has owned a cat would already know all of this

It's not possible to have a cat that isn't stupidly curious or a killer, my cat once maimed a spiders legs all except one and left it crawling about slowly on the floor.
 

FantomOmega

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Jun 14, 2012
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Section Crow said:
Anyone who has owned a cat would already know all of this

It's not possible to have a cat that isn't stupidly curious or a killer, my cat once maimed a spiders legs all except one and left it crawling about slowly on the floor.
Yea, that too. I remember my cat playing with (i.e TORTURE) mice in the garden for hours till they got too tired to play to the chis needs and killed them.

I didn't appreciate waking up one morning with a fat dead foot long rat on my bed with my cat sitting next to it scrutinizing my response like I was supposed to be impressed with his catch (believe me I was) after I stop screaming like a little girl and he had the gall to sit there through my panic attack like it was nothing...



I bet my cat was thinking that...

Also the amount things he killed per week would make the harshest of Dictators green with envy!
 

Xanthious

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Dec 25, 2008
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If I put one on my cat it would just be mostly hours upon hours of him staring at the cupboard under the sink waiting for a mouse to shove it's head out. On the plus side I could find out what in the pikey hell he does up on my counters when I'm sleeping. I swear every night if I get up for water or to go pee right before I get to the kitchen I will hear his fat ass jump down off a counter then when I come around the corner he stares at me like I'm the asshole.
 

Imp_Emissary

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nikki191 said:
Cats dont bring dead animals back as trophies. Its stage 1 of teaching little kittens how to hunt. The cat isnt just going on a murdering spree. It's saying you are so inept you cant even catch your own food!=^_^=
And people say cats don't care about their owners. On topic, one of our 2 cats brought us a live and unharmed baby rabbit. Then she went off to take a nap.
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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I think the cats reputation for independance is well established, so why is anyone shocked at what they get up to when we arent looking?

Anyway if it was my previous cat, you would have just recorded several hours of him either sleeping on the couch near the window by day, sleeping either on my legs or on one of my bean bags by night broken up by him begging (very loudly and physically too) for food and trips to the litterbox.

Anyway, one of the feral cats in my area is definitely being fed by at least 3 families. He is definitely a feral (or possibly abandoned or runaway) but he is vaugely cylindrical.

Imp Emissary said:
nikki191 said:
Cats dont bring dead animals back as trophies. Its stage 1 of teaching little kittens how to hunt. The cat isnt just going on a murdering spree. It's saying you are so inept you cant even catch your own food!=^_^=
And people say cats don't care about their owners. On topic, one of our 2 cats brought us a live and unharmed baby rabbit. Then she went off to take a nap.
So... what happened to that rabbit? Ive got to say its uncommon for pets to bring in more pets.
 

FantomOmega

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gigastar said:
I think the cats reputation for independance is well established, so why is anyone shocked at what they get up to when we arent looking?

Anyway, one of the feral cats in my area is definitely being fed by at least 3 families. He is definitely a feral (or possibly abandoned or runaway) but he is vaugely cylindrical.

Imp Emissary said:
nikki191 said:
Cats dont bring dead animals back as trophies. Its stage 1 of teaching little kittens how to hunt. The cat isnt just going on a murdering spree. It's saying you are so inept you cant even catch your own food!=^_^=
And people say cats don't care about their owners. On topic, one of our 2 cats brought us a live and unharmed baby rabbit. Then she went off to take a nap.
So... what happened to that rabbit? Ive got to say its uncommon for pets to bring in more pets.
Petception, Its a conspiracy I tell you!
 

kortin

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Mar 18, 2011
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Er...what. This is an actual article? Really? I'm not sure how USA Today could consider strapping a video recorder to a cat's collar newsworthy...

Don't get me wrong, I love my cats, but really?
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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Mar 16, 2011
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I'm pretty sure my ginger cat Pumpkin has another owner he came in sparkling clean at one point like someone had bathed him.

My cats kill and unfortunate amount of creatures but we can't seem to get a bell collar that stays on.

My sisters cat Vinnie is huge and his face is covered in scars I dread to think what he gets up too.
 

Imp_Emissary

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FantomOmega said:
gigastar said:
I think the cats reputation for independance is well established, so why is anyone shocked at what they get up to when we arent looking?

Anyway if it was my previous cat, you would have just recorded several hours of him either sleeping on the couch near the window by day, sleeping either on my legs or on one of my bean bags by night broken up by him begging (very loudly and physically too) for food and trips to the litterbox.

Anyway, one of the feral cats in my area is definitely being fed by at least 3 families. He is definitely a feral (or possibly abandoned or runaway) but he is vaugely cylindrical.

Imp Emissary said:
nikki191 said:
Cats dont bring dead animals back as trophies. Its stage 1 of teaching little kittens how to hunt. The cat isnt just going on a murdering spree. It's saying you are so inept you cant even catch your own food!=^_^=
And people say cats don't care about their owners. On topic, one of our 2 cats brought us a live and unharmed baby rabbit. Then she went off to take a nap.
So... what happened to that rabbit? Ive got to say its uncommon for pets to bring in more pets.
No, we did not keep the bunny. I just had to pick it up and find a nice place in our yard to let it go. I didn't see it there latter so hopefully it just went off into the grass. To quell your worries while the rabbit was young it wasn't a new born or anything, but was about 1/3 the size of a full grown rabbit. It was so scared that it didn't move once while near us. Not even after I let it go.

That was also the last "gift" our cats gave us. Also, our cats always wanted us to pet them when we where outside. Sometimes they even "reminded" us to pet them. Light clawing and nipping, but no blood drawn ever. Puls we usually pet them anyway, or we/they were doing something.
 

AzraelSteel

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Aug 11, 2009
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All I could think when reading about the "dangerous" behavior is what has happened to our normal view of dangerous? Cats eating things? Oh, no!
 

conflictofinterests

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Apr 6, 2010
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kortin said:
Er...what. This is an actual article? Really? I'm not sure how USA Today could consider strapping a video recorder to a cat's collar newsworthy...

Don't get me wrong, I love my cats, but really?
It was their senior Reddit correspondent.
 

Redlin5_v1legacy

Better Red than Dead
Aug 5, 2009
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Slow newsday huh?

Well, at least I know my sister's remaining cat doesn't live a double life. He's terrified of the world outside the door.
 

cerebus23

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May 16, 2010
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why people should keep heir cats indoors period, its way healtier for them than letting them run around, ticks worms can make your pet ill, cost you money, and all the other pitfalls of having a cat that goes out kills comes home with god knows what in its gullet.
 

LordReaver

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Jul 13, 2010
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nikki191 said:
cats dont bring dead animals back as trophies. its stage 1 of teaching little kittens how to hunt. the cat isnt just going on a murdering spree its saying you are so inept you cant even catch your own food
This logic falls apart when the same cats come running when they hear a food dish being filled.

They just like to savor the kill, it's just that simple. Not really any different than people who mount heads.
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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Seotinach said:
Being a part of a family that routinely had visiting cats from neighbors wander into our house, stay for an hour or two, then leave again, I'm kind of amused that people didn't know cats do this. A lot.
Yeah, really. My cats loved to visit the neighbours.