How do you solve a problem like Sophia?

My cat is strange.


Actually, I need to take that back.  She is not strange, she behaves exactly like a cat should behave.  She is a hunter.  She loves the thrill of the chase.  She is not lazy in the least.


But this causes problems, because Sophie is no wild fend-for-yourself animal.  She is a house cat.  She is supposed to lounge around in the sunshine while grooming herself and pretending to ignore the humans around her.  Instead, if she feels bored, she chews on any paper she can find until it is torn to shreds.  My house is covered in little paper schnibbles.


She's very happy when she is able to explore the backyard.  But this has led to some other complications.  I've just cleaned up after the second mole she has killed this summer.  This is added to a list of 3 chipmunks, a bird, and some mice (of which I've lost count).  And that is only what I've witnessed.  There have been unsupervised backyard playtimes where she may have caught many more little creatures.


The hunting might not seem like a problem, but Sophie does not hunt for the kill.  In fact, any animal Sophie has killed was entirely by accident.  Sophie prefers to chase and play with her catches, which means she tortures the little creatures until they either die of trauma from her swatting and biting or manage a narrow escape in who knows what kind of health.


Don't get me wrong.  I'm no PETA member.  I also understand that predators hunt weaker animals.  But my cat is not finishing her duty.  She doesn't go for the kill, just the catch.  I realize that we don't know for certain if animals have feelings, but when I see little beady eyes bulging out and some panicked heavy breathing, I can't help but feel bad for the critter in jeopardy.


So today, as I sit at home avoiding the school work that needs to be done in these 2 short weeks before classes start up again, Sophie's insistence on being an animal driven by predatorial instinct is driving me a little crazy.  I'm seriously considering whether she needs to be sent to the farm to live.


And funny cat, as if she knew what I was just typing, has now crawled into my lap to enjoy a little afternoon cuddle.  Brings to mind the saying, "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em."