Growing up, I had a cat who got attacked by a hawk. He came running in one day with deep talon scratches on his back.
My mom took him to the vet, who cleaned up the wounds and said that it was probably a juvenile who was overconfident in what he could grab. An adult wouldn't have tried.
The mental image of this teenager hawk swooping down, grabbing a fatass 15-pound cat, and struggling to pick it up while Mom looks down and shakes her head makes me smile.
I've seen an adult hawk predate a small dog before. The dog was likely killed by the impact of the hawk, though I couldn't be sure because the hawk carried the limp body away before the owner could take any action.
I heard some squawking in the yard, and went out to investigate. My cat had caught a young robin. There was a pair of robins, a pair of bluejays and a pair of crows all squawking, divebombing and generally harassing my cat. The robins and jays eventually went off somewhere else, but the crows carried on harrassing my cat for years. They would leave for the winter and come back the next year to make my cat's life miserable whenever they saw it. Over a dead bird of different species.
>My dog has been on a killing spree this summer, sometimes catching 2 birds in a week :(.
usually dog tags on the collar is enough. Otherwise, have you ever thought about attaching a small bell to the collar so that it'd warn the birds before the dog catches them?
No, I didn't even think of that. I switched the sprinklers to run at midnight instead of 7-8PM a few days ago, and so far so good. If it happens again I'll give the collar w/ tags a try, thanks.
Hopefully she's learning that she gets a bath and I get grumpy every time it happens too.
It's amazing how the birds react when she catches one. They all go nuts, and more fly in and start squawking.
I worry they'll call in a hawk to carry her away lol.