Fischer Cats in Connecticut

Honey, where's the cat? If you unfortunately have had to look for a lost pet and they never turned up, it may have been the Fischer cats. We DO have Fischer cats in Haddam Connecticut, and last summer they claimed two of our beloved household cats, and this year a few of my neighbor's chickens.

If you have never heard of a Fischer cat, here is some basic info. There are a lot of them up north (Maine, New Hampshire etc...) they are part of the weasel family, and look strange as sin. The first time I saw one I had to stop and stare just to try to figure out what this creature was. To me it looked like a giant badger/weasel. They also have a very distinct smell, it is very musky, and it lingers. They also "scream", it is a horrid blood curdling scream, where you swear a crime is happening, it scared me so much the first time I heard it, I thought it was a women screaming. They have a nasty way of killing their prey as well, they typically disembowel they, which makes me quite sad when I think of my poor cats. They usually are out at night.

If you do have some small pets go missing, you should call animal control and the town. They may be able to tell you if they have had other similar reports in your area. At the time when my pets went missing there had been a flurry of reports in our area (chickens, cats, small dogs M.I.A.), and since I had seen a Fischer cat, I had my answer.

We contacted our neighbors, and as a joined effort we all set traps (Have-A-Heart type) with many types of bait, but to no avail, we could not catch him. They have quite a large territory and when they run out of food they will start their travels to the next part of their territory, but they do come back. Do not be lulled into a false security because you have not seen it in a while, they might be gone for a month and then show up in your yard again.

For now, we are still keeping our last remaining cat indoors. We will set a new trap in the spring, but until I know it has been captured, I know none of our small pets will be safe. Our neighbors have lost countless chickens, and we have found feathers and unidentifiable tufts of fur in our back woods, I know it's still out there.