Some place right in front of the cats in the picture to the right, is a hole in the ground where a chipmunk lives. My cats enjoy sitting close by waiting for it to appear.
Occasionally, Richie – crazy little kitty that he is – will stick both paws down into the hole and try to pry the little critter out. Richie is a male and is quite the hunter. He leaves dead things outside my back porch each morning.
He does catch many chipmunks and I’ve noticed that the chipmunks are really pretty clever. If you have outdoor cats that hunt link mine, you might already know about this, but I was so surprised when I first saw it.
All of a sudden the “injured” rodent bee-lined it for the woods.
He wasn’t hurt at all …just pretending until he could make his getaway. And he did get away. We were all fooled, including Richie!
The cat will play with it’s prey. It’s very cruel, but they love the chase so don’t want to give it up right away.
We watched one day as Richie was playing with a chipmunk. As it (the chipmunk) hopped around with it’s back all hunched up, and Richie batted it around, we noticed that the chipmunk was moving towards the woods as he hopped in circles. Suddenly the chipmunk came to life and bolted for the woods. He was lost in the leaves and rocks and had made his escape successfully. Richie was the loser.
I’ve seen this happen over and over since that day. Some of them don’t get away because Richie is an amazing hunter.
New England's Narrow Road 