[heatherhavens18]

i went camping over last weekend and when we came home two of five cats were gone. yeaster day we foung only fur and not just a little bit but every last piece of fur from both cats any ideas what animal could have done this there was noooo blood what sooo ever and one bone both cats were old one 18 one 12 can any one help me please any ideas let me know.

[NTBKtrader]

If you don't feed them enough some cats eat eachother!

[jbrovont]

Aww I'm sorry. I have kitties and that's really sad that you lost a couple.

As far as what animal may have killed them, depending on your location, it may have been coyotes - they'll eat just about anything, fur and bones sometimes. If you were gone for a few days, any number of scavengers could have cleaned up after something else too.

[kpeavey]

sounds like the work of an owl or a teenager. too bad.

By the way, Welcome to Peakoil.com.

[ProudFossil]

HawkWatch has a viewing post on the mountain by us. Last year they saw a nest which looked like it might be a great horned owl's nest. One of them climbed the tree and recovered the 'garbarge' in the nest for analysis. It was a greath horned owl. And they found 50+ small dog and cat collars in the nest. The closest real community is probably five miles away.

[Petropest]

If you found every last bit of fur it might be people who did this. An animal will tear into the innards first, not skin the beast.

[smallpoxgirl]

Coyotes are also a pretty common predator of house cats.

[Leanan]

I'm sorry you lost your cats. It would help if you said where you were (in general). But I agree with SPG - coyotes are a likely suspect. Or even dogs.

The fact that you found fur, no blood, and only one bone is probably just natural decomposition. Flies/maggots consume the blood and much of the flesh, scavengers may take away the bones. It can be surprisingly fast - yes, even just a weekend - especially if the weather is warm.

[WyoDutch]

Here in Wyoming, stray/loose cats are considered predators and are dispatched at will. I used to have hundreds of songbirds in the cliffs overlooking the house... then an abandoned housecat moved into the area and would spend the night-time hours locating nests and slaughtering the occupants.

I pondered over what caliber medicine to use on the cat... finally settled on .22 magnum. There was a bit of fur here and there after I tossed the carcass into the burn barrel.

[neocone]

Owl are bad, or falcons... but this one sounds like a bobcat or mountain lion.

A falcon tried to grab my kitty when she was young. She had claw marks on her lower back so probably was too heavy to lift. Get her to the vet and had to drip hydrogen peroxyde on her butt for 2 days and she was miawwwing loud. She got in shape and was always running belly the ground looking up in open spaces ever since.

[smallpoxgirl]

Owl are bad, or falcons... but this one sounds like a bobcat or mountain lion.

IMHO, if you're going to introduce a non-native animal into an area, you just don't have much room to complain if it gets eaten by native predators. I decided this long ago vis-a-via my dog. I love her dearly and will be very sad when she dies, but if she gets eaten by a bear or something, that's just the inherent risk of living here.

So no. Owls aren't bad. For millions of years, North America didn't have a problem with owls eating housecats.

As WyoDutch points out, house cats roaming around loose can be very devastating to the local populations of birds and small mammals. Really house cats should live in the house. There they are a benefit when they catch small mammals (i.e. mice).

[Fishman]

Pstarr
Thanks for the idea, I plan on putting out owl boxes to combat cats.

[Petropest]

Rain could have washed the blood away. Bobcat, coyote, wolf, dogs, could be anything.

[dinopello]

Red-tailed Hawk. They are pretty impressive hunters.

[threadbear]

If you found every last bit of fur it might be people who did this. An animal will tear into the innards first, not skin the beast.

Eagle or great horned owl. Possibly a hawk. I used to regularly find duck feathers and down on my property. It looked like the poor animals kind of exploded, cartoon like. The only part of the bird that was missing was, well, the bird part. Feathers everywhere.

Sorry to hear this. Rest assured it was likely a very fast death. Those talons are designed to kill so quickly there is no chance of retaliation or panicky clawing.

People don't leave small dogs unattended in my neighbourhood. Observe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfoXJAooWhs