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Oh our old barn cat would come out of the barn door carrying a dead rat so large she couldn't hold it off the ground.

Yeah, my cat's literally dug up moles before. I know NYC has mutant rats, but I'm sure it's not difficult to find a cat adventurous enough.

I have seen a junivile cat do the same she was hardly out of kittenhood and took a rat bigger than her.

Yeah, at the right age, a juvenile cat is a pound and a half of death, and it isn't shy about showing you. I think later on in their lives cats are a bit more secretive, especially about prey they want to eat.

If you don't feed a cat much, it'll go after just about anything rodent-like that it thinks it can sink its teeth into.

[Edit: also bird-like, which is why a number of eco-friendly people aren't too fond of free range domestic cats in many different parts of the world]

Our old barncat just hunted the ratlings. Tenderer meat, you know.