Is it feasible for a cat to accept his prey as a housemate?

[siligut]

Buddy, the cat brought in a bunny: [URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

Buddy had him scruffed and with some urging set him down. Bunny was shaken, but has recovered nicely. Originally I was going to take bunny to PAWS, though he looks like a domestic bunny, there are feral domestics around here as we live very close to a large, natural park.

Bunny . . . Peter, allows me to pet him and pick him up. He stretches like a cat to greet me and even "purred" last night. I am keeping him in a twelve-gallon crate, which I move to any room I can keep Buddy out of at the time.

Two nights ago, I put Peter up on on the top of the roll-top desk I was working at. Buddy came in through his cat door and Peter moved, attracting buddy's attention, Buddy went right into predator mode. I distracted Buddy, then moved Peter to a room with a door. But this made me wonder that even given time and as Peter grows up; will Buddy ever not see him as prey?

[hunter]

1. Makes me worry, but it can happen.

Years ago we had a pack of dogs who would accept rats and rabbits as family. My kid had rats and rabbits when we adopted these dogs into our "pack."

Our most fearsome hunter dog, who would have joyfully helped take down a wild pig or mammoth, she'd play with the rabbit and tolerated the pet rats so much that she'd ignored the wild rats and let the family rats ride around on her back, or even on her head.

Our child with small animals went to college, the small animals lived long happy lives, and we've adopted two dogs since.

I wouldn't trust these new dogs around rats or rabbits. They both see rats and rabbits, wild or domestic, as "food."

Red dog eats whole any rat, gopher, or mouse she grabs. Gulp. She was a feral thing by the time the county caught her and I'm not sure that survival experience will ever leave her.

[siligut]

2. Yes, growing-up we had rats, rabbits, guinea hens, cats and dogs and no one ate the other

Buddy came to us as a stray, he is a predator at heart. Last Spring we found the remains (pelt and paws) of a bunny about Peter's size in the area of the house that Buddy takes animals to "play" with them.

I just am so fond of this little bunny and want to get to know him better and take care of him. He will get bigger, but not quite as big as Buddy and he is sweet, unlike Buddy.

The worst is that Buddy brought the bunny in to torture and then eat, this alone makes me believe I am hoping for too much. Peter has a real fear of Buddy already.

The way you describe Red dog really cracks me up.