May 28, 2005

The crow that adopted a kitten. A more doomed relationship I can hardly imagine. Via
posted by kitfisto 19 years ago
  • Sorry, forgot to say - there's an embedded video on the page...
  • Cool! The date stamp on the video says 1999--I wonder how this turned out?
  • That's great, thanks!
  • Wamsutta trailer park residents Wallace and Ann Collito spotted a tiny, dehydrated kitten in the grass near a neighbor's oil tank which was initially mistaken for a baby rat. "It was no bigger than my little finger," said Ann, but when she tried to pick it up she was attacked by a crow and then watched in amazement as the bird fed the kitten insects and later fought off squirrels, skunks and raccoons to protect her charge. The Collitos christened the cat "Cassie" and the crow "Moses" and put out food for them. Every day about 4p.m., the cat would play in the yard and Moses would drop in "to peck gently at its paws or walk with it or hop around it or nestle nearby." "The bird even gave me money," Ann Collito insists, bringing dollar bills to the yard "as a sort of payment." "As God is my witness, three dollars," she said. "Then it brought a dime...That's the truth." Lest skeptics challenge the story, they've videotaped these encounters, as well as chronicling Cassie's continuing taste for insects, which she catches and eats as a supplement to the cat food they supply. Moses even plays "traffic cop" cawing "and spreading her wings when the kitten strolls onto the road near oncoming cars...and when the cat plays with a squirrel, she doesn't like that." "We're going to have to charge admission pretty soon," Wallace said.
  • I don't think Moses is doomed; crows are extremely smart and quite able to kick some butt if need be. Moses has no doubt had occasion to whup a little sense into kitty a few times already, and he'll remember that. I hope.
  • what's the date on that story, Jerry?
  • Yeah, I've been around a lot of cats and I've never seen one try to fuck with a crow or a grackle or anything like that. Vice versa, however, that can happen. Like it said, the crow fought off raccoons. So I think the crow's gonna be ok. On the other hand, cats eat bugs all the time, so that's not that special.
  • Sorry, patita, it's from 1999 and the second of the only two relevant Google hits for "cassie moses crow" Perhaps Oprah knows how the story ends?
  • It's unlikely the cat would ever attack the crow.
  • AWWWWK merow, hiss hiss crow: 1 cat: 0 my money's on Moses
  • And Moses... I named him Moses. Because of the mistakes he made. Truly and for true.
  • thanks Jerry--just wondering of it was more recent that the rest of it. very good!
  • I think it's damn smart of Moses. At first, I thought he just saw an opportunity for a powerful ally, because you be one badass bird with a cat for backup. But now I think it's more humanitarian, after reading the part about the squirrel. He's trying to teach a "demon" (from a small animal's perspective, cats would be be demons) to not be "evil" (It's a cat's nature to tease and kill small animals. Moses is trying to to teach this cat not to. Maybe he'll fail, but he's going to do a better job of it than any human could.) It's like the opposite of the movie "Unleashed".
  • Crows are evil birds. Moses is trying to tame a "demon" to do his bidding so he can take over the world. In a scrap I'd pick Moses over Cassie. We had a cat growing up who was mercilessly tormented by the local crows. He was so scared of them he'd run home when they started messing with him - and he was not a small or retiring cat, either.
  • Crows are NOT evil birds.
  • Depends on the crow. AWWWK AWWWK BWWWAAAKK *end evil crow laugh
  • Crows eat carrion, raid the nests of other birds and eat their young, damage crops, and are all-around tough customers. Ever see crows mob a hawk or owl? I'm with Rhiannon, my money says the kitten got the worst of it.
  • Like I said before, it is highly unlikely either of these animals will attack each other, for the simple reason that they have already imprinted. If the crow was going to attack the cat, it would already have done so, the cat will not attack the crow any more than a dog who's grown up with cats will attack them later on. Crows are extremely intelligent, they're amongst the most intelligent of all animals - up there with chimps. How they get their meals is irrelevant.
  • You're all just a bunch of Corvidae haters! You did see my pictures of the Magpies on my profile page?
  • Crows are extremely intelligent, they're amongst the most intelligent of all animals... I think this is more proof that they are evil, Chy. If they do shitty things, and are smart enough to they're shitty, that'd be acts of evil. Then this crow becomes the one non-evil crow, trying to train a cat to be the one non-evil cat.
  • Then again, the examples of crows being evil that LarryC offered aren't evil at all. Eating carrion? gross maybe, but not evil. Raids nests and eats baby birds? Most humans do it too. I'm not convinced that's evil. It's not any more evil than any other meat eater. Damaging crops? Bummer, but still not evil. All-round tough customers? Not even close to evil. Attacks other all-round tough customers? Not evil.
  • raid the nests...and eat their young Most humans do it too. mmmmmmm, babies *drool
  • Then this crow becomes the one non-evil crow, trying to train a cat to be the one non-evil cat. Sounds like they need to go on a quest for something under a mountain.
  • Crows like shiny things...oh, look, a ring.
  • Crow is clever. Raven is wise. Some say he built the world that houses humans and their lies about the noble Corvidaes.
  • OW! Cut that out!
  • chy, a very cool raven at the tower of london said, GOOOOOD MORNING! to my sweetie. they're wonderful birds, ravens and magpies and the like.