Headless cat in garden, a bit freaked out and concerned by what might have happened.

[Chocolatestain]

This isn’t pleasant but hopefully the title will have acted as a trigger warning (and I’ve posted in AIBU rather than one of the pet boards as it’s probably most triggering to pet owners).

We live rurally with a large front garden. This morning I noticed a dark shape in the middle of the front lawn and when I went to investigate I could see it was the corpse of an animal. It took me a while to work out what it might be. The head was missing and the tail was only a few centimetres long. The fur was longish, dark grey and matted with mud. At first I thought it might be a very large rabbit or a hare because of the fur and position it was lying in, but then I noticed its claws and realised it was probably a cat. I phoned the local vet, which is just at the end of our lane, and asked if anyone had reported a cat missing. They suggested I bring it in to check for a microchip and said they could cremate it if no-one came forward to claim it. The vet confirmed that it was definitely a cat and not microchipped, so possibly a stray. She was as baffled as I am as to how it ended up in our garden.

Has anyone encountered anything likes this before? I’m really hoping that it’s a kind of weird fox behaviour, but my worry is that there is some sick animal torturer hanging around our garden. I have two cats of my own and next door has a little dog. It looked as if the head had been taken off fairly cleanly and there were no other signs of injury (apart from the shortened tail) although I realise cats have tough skin and internal injuries aren’t always visible. It wasn’t flung over the wall as it was too far into the garden so something carried or dragged it there. Would a fox eat a cat’s head and just leave the rest of the body? We’ve left the electric gates open for the last few days due to having a lot of deliveries, but we’ll definitely be shutting them tonight.

It's just a fox. Not very nice but nothing to be concerned over. Stick your ear plugs in so you don't hear them squinnining later.

If the cat died I’d imagine it would be eaten by wild animals. Although the foxes around here don’t tend to leave anything behind.

Do you live near a train line?

Well, this made me do a bit of googling. It seems like yes foxes do eat the heads of cats sometimes including in this article. https://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/15046898.a-fox-ate-my-cats-head-residents-advised-on-humane-solutions-after-reports-of-foxes-killing-chickens-hedgehogs-and-a-tortoise-in-twickenham-and-teddington/

I was thinking the same thing. Poor little soul hope it didn't suffer whatever happened.

It'll have been a fox

We don’t live near a train line or busy road. My first thought was a fox, but it seemed odd that it would only take the head. I’ve found a half-eaten chicken in the bushes whilst weeding before, which was gone the next day, so perhaps it was saving the rest for later and got disturbed before it could hide the body.

I have found numerous headless squirrels in the garden. The work of hawks, apparently. The brain is high in fat and nutrients. 🤮

Oh dear

I read about an incident of a cat being found like this a couple of days ago in Rochdale

that article also mentioned a clean cut

I would be careful with your cats, do they go outside? I would also alert the neighbourhood group if you have that kind of thing. Maybe a fox did it. But the details worry me.

I could have done without that fact living rent free in my head😁

My childhood cat used to bring home squirrels and only eat the head or sometimes just leave the tail so not necessarily hawks!

The vet confirmed that it was definitely a cat and not microchipped, so possibly a stray. She was as baffled as I am as to how it ended up in our garden.

Neither you nor the vet could imagine how a cat, stray or otherwise, could end up in your garden? Really?

I'd also imagine foxes.

Not very nice to find or see but I'd also expect someone living rurally to have a bit of an idea of how nature works too.

Foxes will definitely just eat the heads off hens and smaller mammals.

That is grim to find in your garden OP.

Only this morning at 4am, DH and I were driving to Billingsgate fish market in London. We'd stopped at lights and I saw a fox dragging something across the road. It was a cat, but the entire stomach and chest was open! I don't know if it had been hit by a car and a chance find by the fox, or if the fox had caught it? 😬

That probably explains it, thank you. I didn’t realise foxes just ate cat heads, I assumed they’d eat more. Hopefully the poor creature was an elderly stray and therefore an easy target. My two are young and fit. I can’t keep them in indefinitely as they’re used to roaming but hopefully they wouldn’t be worth the effort to a fox.

Agree with pp that it will be a fox. The head will probably turn up elsewhere. We had a headless fox cub body in our garden and the head turned up next door. Apparently the males can kill the cubs of other females. Anyway, DH gave it a burial in the bottom of the garden.

Loads of mink where I live and they love to behead their prey.

Foxes do not usually target the average cat - far too much hassle and hard work! I expect they may well attack a sick/weak feral one though.

Not a pleasant experience for you OP regardless.

Not in the uk. Carnage in our garden is a regular thing. Ours are mostly large hawks and eagles that have dropped a piece of their kill. Sometimes it’s a fox, coyote, or bobcat that got distracted.

What an odd comment, why would anyone think it normal to find a headless cat? Did you miss the fact that it was a headless cat? A headless cat in the garden is not an everyday occurence (surely?), rural or otherwise.

You’re a bit freaked out, for me that doesn’t even come close to covering it.
I feel physically sick and I didn’t even see it.

I thought that it was a perfectly sensible statement.

Headless creatures are normal to find in the country if you have cats. For some bizarre reason if they have a rabbit or similar they eat the ears and head 1st , then they are full and so they leave the much more meaty body until later. You then find a decapitated rabbit (substitute anything else wild) in the kitchen (on the stairs, under the bed and once in the bath) and bin it.

I am not sure if foxes follow a similar head first approach.

Not very nice to find or see but I'd also expect someone living rurally to have a bit of an idea of how nature works too.

I just didn’t realise that a fox would only take the head and leave the rest of the carcass, especially as it was so cleanly done, with no other visible injuries. When the cats eat mouse heads the rest is a mess (and the cats get fed so can afford to be picky with rodents). It was also the fact that the vet didn’t say ‘oh, yes, probably a fox’ that baffled me a bit.

Awful to find, poor little guy. My friend's cat got attacked by a fox and it went straight for the head - thankfully he was rescued but he was in the vet hospital for weeks.

It's not that common for a fox to actually attack and an alive cat from what I can read online, the cats tend to be faster, more agile and too big for a fox but it is possible. I think probably much more likely is the cat has died either of natural causes or been hit by a car and then the fox has devoured.