Playing with their food

It’s been observed for centuries: cats play with their prey before finally killing it. A cat pounces on a mouse but instead of chowing down at once, he swats at it, tosses it into the air and otherwise prolongs the death for several minutes.

Many humans find this rather sadistic, but words like sadistic hardly apply to an animal that, by nature, catches and kills other animals. One thing that surprises some people is that the cat may continue to play with the prey after it is dead. Here’s something that won’t surprise you: if the cat is really hungry, he will eat his prey without playing with it.