My dog killed my neighbors kitten. . .

[Chocaholic]

. . .an I feel like crap as a result. We had to calm down the kids, take it to the back of our property and bury the little fella. In a nut-shell:

We returned from vacation yesterday. My oldest son (13) and I were out in the garage, door opened, working on his RC airplane model. A small kitten came in and hung out with us during the evening. Sweet little thing....probably no more than 3 or 4 months old. Not even close to full grown. It seems our next door neighbor, an elderly couple with two other cats, found this one wandering the neighborhood and decided to care for it. They're the nicest people in the world and we have a great relationship with them.

Anyway, we have two golden retrievers, one is almost 15 years old, and the other one is 4 (a female stray that we took in about 3 years ago). Advance to today...

Lucy (the younger golden retreiver) is at the front door watching for the kitten. No biggie. A few hours later, my wife let her out in our fenced-in back yard to do whatever it is dogs do when you let them out. She lets the dog back in about 20 or 30 minutes later. Some time after that, I happen to look out the back window with my youngest son (8) and we see the kitten laying on our back deck inside the fenced yard. . .clearly not moving. We watch....nothing. I go out back and he is dead. Drying dog slobber all over its mid-section and the poor thing had apparently pooped in the closing moments of it's life....I'm sure it was absolutely terrorized.

Kids actually handled it pretty well, all things considered. I picked it up and carried out to the back of our lot and dug a hole. Wished it a restful sleep as I covered the little thing up. Ruined my day.

Fortunately, the neighbors were very nice about it and indicated that outdoor cats often meet such a demise. They were not mad or upset, but rather they urged us not to feel bad. We live in a rural area and it's not uncommon for the natural pecking order of things to display themselves. It just hurts since we played with the little fella last night and he was a sweet, playful and gentle little domestic kitten.

Such is life I guess.

[Les Paul]

Dogs tend to do that. My daughter has 2 Jack Russels. Great little dogs. We used to have 2 cats. One was an old Tabby that was 13, blind for his last 3 years, and pretty pitiful. He was my sons cat from the time he was a little guy. So my daughter who lives out of state would bring her dogs over and we'd put up a dog fence to keep the dogs on one side of the house and the cats on the other. Long story short the dog jumped the fence and had the old tabby by the gut with me trying to get them apart. The cat never knew what had him and died of a heart attack right then and there. Everyone was devestated to say the least. What can you say?

[widgeon13]

My golden Max took the ear off our neighbor's poodle, cost me $450! Good dog, sit!

Sorry to hear about the cat but if they (cats) roam free they are going to get in trouble

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Terrible story. I hate to say it, but I think your dog has some training/control issues.

I think hiding behind "the dog was just doing what dogs do" is B.S. It's indicative of a dog that hasn't had the proper training to show restraint around other living things.

Nature isn't pretty sometimes - I get that, but the distinction is that with a pet you are deliberately taking an animal OUT of nature and into a human environment with our rules and expectations.

Not a good situation. Glad the neighbors are being forgiving. If it was one of my cats, I know I sure as hell wouldn't be.

[svandamme]

dog might not even have meant to kill it, a 3-4 month old kitten is pretty small to a golden retriever, and one playfull bite might be to much... And kitten's who don't avoid dogs , well, they might be to bold for their own good...

tough, but that's just how it works out...

i got one in the house, Boris
he's fearless, uncle has a Beagle, first thing it did was put a claw in it's nose... Beagle is 17 years old, same Beagle at age 5 would have snuffed the kitty for that kind of offence...

Same kitten constantly bugs my 4 year old cat Bubba... most of the time, he just walks off
till it get's to him , then Bubba chases Boris, Bubba has Ninja skills, i'de get scared if he chased me with intent, he's big, superfast, has mucho power,
kills daily... it's what he does


if you're small, you gotta know your place, dead kitty didn't know it
Boris doesn't always know it either, but he has Bubba to teach him that lesson...

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Terrible story. I hate to say it, but I think your dog has some training/control issues.

I think hiding behind "the dog was just doing what dogs do" is B.S. It's indicative of a dog that hasn't had the proper training to show restraint around other living things.

Nature isn't pretty sometimes - I get that, but the distinction is that with a pet you are deliberately taking an animal OUT of nature and into a human environment with our rules and expectations.

Not a good situation. Glad the neighbors are being forgiving. If it was one of my cats, I know I sure as hell wouldn't be. My cats are indoor ones, FWIW (they only go outdoors occasionally and only when directly supervised with me or my wife standing right there) - maybe there's a bit of irresponsibility on the cat's owners too but the bottom line is YOUR dog killed it because of YOUR dog's lack of restraint.

[stomachmonkey]

Dog could have ben simply playing a bit too rough.

Sucks.

Hope the kids get past it.

[Les Paul]

Porsche-O-Phile do you have any dogs? We've got a couple that have been trained out the kazoo and yet they have a thing for squirrels, birds, and possums. I think they more or less just maul them to death because they never eat them. I find them a day or so later flies buzzing and starting to stink. We have a big back yard so they have plent of places to forget about their latest kills before I stumble on them. And they lick their privates all the time, what's up with that?

[notfarnow]

That sucks, but fortunately it sounds like you and your neighbor handled it like reasonable adults. Sad for your kids to see that, and I hope they don't think you don't have a "bad dog". It's just instincts.

It's great to live in an area where neighbors and and animals can wander around freely. I grew up in a neighborhood like that. Our dog went to one neighbor right after breakfast, and took her afternoon nap on another neighbor's couch.

One year the neighbor got bunnies for his 10yr old daughter, who would occasionally forget to close the cage. Our dog killed 2 of the bunnies one morning, brought them back to our house to display proudly. Everyone was pretty upset, but dealt with it reasonably. We promised to not let the dog wander anymore, but they wouldn't hear of it. After 10+ years, it was their dog as much as ours.

[RWebb]

That's sad but even a Golden will kill a baby animal. She probably 'mouthed' it too much rather than biting to kill. It is too late to punish her.

I'd apologize again to the couple and think of something nice you can do for them.

[Chocaholic]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Terrible story. I hate to say it, but I think your dog has some training/control issues.

I think hiding behind "the dog was just doing what dogs do" is B.S. It's indicative of a dog that hasn't had the proper training to show restraint around other living things.

Nature isn't pretty sometimes - I get that, but the distinction is that with a pet you are deliberately taking an animal OUT of nature and into a human environment with our rules and expectations.

...but the bottom line is YOUR dog killed it because of YOUR dog's lack of restraint.

Are you serious??? She let the dog out into our own fenced yard to "do what dogs do" (meaning, relieve itself) not go hunting. Hunting, I believe is instinct...no? Training a Retreiver not to go after a small moving animal would be like training a monkey not to climb trees. It's what they do. Note that the kitten's skin was not broken anywhere. I think she just did what Retreivers are programmed to do. Am I wrong???

[Taz's Master]

P-O-P, I am a dog guy and not a cat guy, and I understand you are firmly entrenched in the other perspective. We disagree, and this exchange will probably not change that disagreement. But would you consider it to be a training issue if the neighbor's cat killed our pet mouse that was in the neighbor's yard? Cats and dogs are predators and territorial. I think it is unreasonable to expect everyone else to work to protect your pets as they roam free. I suspect you feel the same way, and do not let your cats roam others' property.

I would feel terrible if my dog hurt someone else's pet, but it is advisable for people with 4mo. old kittens to keep them out of harm's way.

[David]

Sorry to hear, but glad to hear you have reasonable neighbors.

My neighbor yells at me when our dogs get out, which isn't very often. Why? Because they think it's going to kill their cat. Forget the fact that their cat sits on our fence and torments our dogs or the fact that their cat is supposed to follow that same leash laws as a dog

[azasadny]

I'm very sorry that happened to you. We have a wonderful 9 month old Golden Retriever, but I wouldn't trust her alone with our two ferrets. she would be playing with them, but they aren't as durable as a dog and it wouldn't end well for them...

[kstar]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Terrible story. I hate to say it, but I think your dog has some training/control issues.

I think hiding behind "the dog was just doing what dogs do" is B.S. It's indicative of a dog that hasn't had the proper training to show restraint around other living things.

Nature isn't pretty sometimes - I get that, but the distinction is that with a pet you are deliberately taking an animal OUT of nature and into a human environment with our rules and expectations.

Not a good situation. Glad the neighbors are being forgiving. If it was one of my cats, I know I sure as hell wouldn't be. My cats are indoor ones, FWIW (they only go outdoors occasionally and only when directly supervised with me or my wife standing right there) - maybe there's a bit of irresponsibility on the cat's owners too but the bottom line is YOUR dog killed it because of YOUR dog's lack of restraint.

This is quite an interesting opinion which I am totally unable to understand. Typically, I can comprehend arguments that I disagree with, but not this one.

Sorry.

Best,

[Super_Dave_D]

Thats what animals do - my cat kills EVERYTHING that enters the house and eats nothing. The fact that the kitten had no wounds could be that the dog was playing and pounced on it. Its not like you dog got out - the cat was in your yard so I doubt there are any legal issues. You have already done the best you can do. Heck - go to the pound and get them a new one.

[sammyg2]

One time a neighbor's cat got into my garage. i was cleaning an old carburetor and had a pan of gasoline on the ground and when I turned around, there was this stupid little cat lapping up that gasoline!
i yelled and it jumped back with it's hair all standing up in back, let out a cry and started running around the garage as fast as it could possibly run.

After about 4 times around it stopped, shook a little, then fell over flat on the concrete.







No, it wasn't dead, just out of gas

I know I know, sick.

[Seahawk]

Mike,

Sorry for both your kids and the kitty, but your neighbors are saints, no kidding.

My Mom gave me a Jack Russel when I was in flight school...not sure why, but she did.

Everybody loved Harry, but he had a thing for cats. I was living in Coronado, Ca. during my first squadron tour and Harry saw a cat, got off the leash and followed it through the cat door into the neighbors house

That is where the cat met it's demise.

I was making about $30k a year (1983) and Harry's little adventure ran me about 5% of my annual, without lawyers.

I got off light.

[Rikao4]

I'm sure he meant no harm, playing a little hard,
a kill would leave more graphic evidence, or none.
When Sam encounters a Possum, he just looks at me..'that's one ugly beetch' and moves on.

Rika

[asphaltgambler]

Had a situation very much like this about 18 years ago. I left town with my GF left on a short vacation and had a buddy stay at my place to watch the house and stuff and walk/hang with my Chow; Rocky

So my buddy has a few beers, goes for a walk with my dog on a leash, in my neighborhod. After 'rounding the block a young girl puts a small cat down to run in the "common area" . The cat was still young, but not full grown. My dogs sees this, tugs at the leash which my buddy was not grasping firmly........and he's off!! He catches the cat, kills it all while the little girl watched. She was about 8-9yrs old at the time.

I get home and find out the story. So I figure the only way to man-up was to A) drink a beer myself, then B) Walk over to the little girls house and appologize. I go over and I ring the bell and who opens the door???? The little girl looking up at me, about to cry. So I looked her in the eye, said my peace and offered to help with any vet bills as her mom walked up behind her. She said it was okay amd her mom thanked me for appologizing directly to her daughter.

They were very cool about it and no more was said.