I went out this afternoon and found Harry over another dead squirrel. I bought him a breakaway collar with jingle bells-- actually three of them now-- expressly to avoid this happening. The collar is still on him and is still jingly. Maybe he can move without moving his neck somehow, but I doubt it.
I'm really bummed out about it. I feel the same when I run over a squirrel. I feel responsible for the unnecessary and pointless death of another creature. And I'm not much comforted by circle of life reassurances. When a creature we brought here from Africa kills a creature we brought here from England for no reason but because he can, it says a lot about us, but not a lot about the circle of life.
Of course it's possible that the squirrel just dropped dead. It still seems unlikely that any animal not a baby or a cripple could be caught by a jingly cat. In rigor mortis, the squirrel appeared to be in mid-step; I would think a squirrel killed by a cat would go limp. Regardless, I'll redouble efforts to indooricize this kitty, and try to come up with more fun things for him to do indoors or outdoors than killing squirrels. Or just feed him so much that he's too slow to catch them.
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