UPDATE: We have a visitor...

Barefoot TJ

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Mar 5, 2010
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So, one of my cats caught a mouse and brought it into our house through the cat door to kill it and offer it up to us as a thank you, or so cat experts say. The thing is...it got away from him! Now we have been chasing this mouse on and off for two weeks. I'm not so worried about it starving to death, although it may be hungry, because my youngest likes to hide food scraps around the house instead of taking it to the trash in the kitchen! sigh.

Well, we saw the cat acting funny in my bedroom, so we knew he was on the hunt for the mouse again. (They "perch" themselves and watch the walls, under the cabinets, behind the fridge and stove, and this will go on, like forever.) The mouse was onto us, so it ran under my side table. I moved the side table, and this is what I saw. Now mind you, he had just run from us, found some yummies, and while he is on the lam, he grabs a quick bite! He must have been hungry.

Needless to say, he got away from us again. I saw him twice today climbing out from a hole between the wall and the cabinet. sigh. Man I hope it's not pregnant!

MrMouse1_small.jpg
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What a cutie!! Although, would you have caught him if you hadn't stopped to take pics?
And as a footnote, I ordered two humane mouse traps from Amazon for my office, because there seem to be mouse poopies appearing on my desk ... but I haven't baited and set them yet.
 
I'm off to the pet store today, coincidentally, to get some humane mouse traps.

I have three cats, and they are some of the sharpest hunters I know, or so I thought. Humane though, no.

It's funny how the whole family will get in on a mouse hunt though, not just the cats. We must be a sight to see, the way we move furniture around, toss each other towels, scream, and jump up on furniture (for fear we would step on it, not for being scaredy cats, not us!).

I don't think I could have caught him regardless. He is so fast. I saw him run across the floor this morning, and he was quick as lightning. Looked like a lizard, how long it was, blurry too, but that could have been my eyes, or maybe we have another visitor. Oh, well, Mr. Mouse can use a friend.
 
The candies remind me of fruit pastilles - with all that sugar surprised the poor thing hasn't flipped out on a sugar high! At least he is pretty harmless unless of course "he" is really a "she" and you have lots of baby meeces on the way! Then you may not have to buy cat food for a while!

We had a feral cat invade our house - through the cat door and he kept 3 German Shepherds and two of our own cats at bay! Found out he was in the house when a full-on screaming snarling cat fight started in our bed next to me at 3AM! THAT sets your heart fluttering! Didn't realize my wife could move so fast! I thought our two cats were fighting - and I saw one of them go under the bed - or I thought it was one of ours until my wife pointed out that our two cats were side by side and bristling and growling. Add 3 big dogs going absolutely ape and we had a right old din going on. Leaned off the bed and took a peak underneath and saw a pair of eyes glaring back at me! Long story short - could not get the damn thing out of the house. On vet's advice (who was hysterical with laughter even at 3;30 AM) who said lock up everyone and leave the front door open and go to bed - the cat will leave. This we did - only to find the cat sitting on the open steps in the central stairwell in the morning - this cat decided he owned the house. SPCA inspector visited - took one step inside and then straight back out. Do you have any idea how much crap and pee a feral cat can spray over a house and what that smell is like?? . My guess is the closest I am ever going to get to having a skunk in the house. Cat eventually caught and sent to kitty heaven at the local vets - he was in bad shape and had feline leukemia - and posed a real threat to our cats. Took a week of scrubbing to get the smell out of the house.
Any of you guys had a skunk in the house?
 
The candies remind me of fruit pastilles - with all that sugar surprised the poor thing hasn't flipped out on a sugar high! At least he is pretty harmless unless of course "he" is really a "she" and you have lots of baby meeces on the way! Then you may not have to buy cat food for a while!

We had a feral cat invade our house - through the cat door and he kept 3 German Shepherds and two of our own cats at bay! Found out he was in the house when a full-on screaming snarling cat fight started in our bed next to me at 3AM! THAT sets your heart fluttering! Didn't realize my wife could move so fast! I thought our two cats were fighting - and I saw one of them go under the bed - or I thought it was one of ours until my wife pointed out that our two cats were side by side and bristling and growling. Add 3 big dogs going absolutely ape and we had a right old din going on. Leaned off the bed and took a peak underneath and saw a pair of eyes glaring back at me! Long story short - could not get the damn thing out of the house. On vet's advice (who was hysterical with laughter even at 3;30 AM) who said lock up everyone and leave the front door open and go to bed - the cat will leave. This we did - only to find the cat sitting on the open steps in the central stairwell in the morning - this cat decided he owned the house. SPCA inspector visited - took one step inside and then straight back out. Do you have any idea how much crap and pee a feral cat can spray over a house and what that smell is like?? . My guess is the closest I am ever going to get to having a skunk in the house. Cat eventually caught and sent to kitty heaven at the local vets - he was in bad shape and had feline leukemia - and posed a real threat to our cats. Took a week of scrubbing to get the smell out of the house.
Any of you guys had a skunk in the house?
That was funny up until the point the poor ole pussy cat got sent to kitty heaven. But I understand why.

I've never had anything come into my house that wasn't welcomed, at least by the other cats in one way or the other.

We've had neighbor cats come in, one of which we adopted when they said it was okay (we felt like we were catnapping it or something), and the other one still comes in when it's too cold outside and his cat door is set to out-only.
 
Boom-Booms, a.k.a., Urkel, caught Mr. Mousie in the bathroom around his humane mouse trap last night while I was sleeping, and when I heard the noise, I jumped up, grabbed Boomies with my left hand around the jaws, grabbed Mr. Mousie with my right hand, and while trying to pry Boom's mouth open, Mr. Mousie bit me. Mr. Mousie got away, but I don't know if he is injured from Boomies' biting down on him. If he's been bitten, then he will die within 24 hours, since I had a vet tell me that feline saliva is toxic to rodents and rabbits. :-(
 
I think he's been eating whatever he can find, crumbs under the stove and fridge in or kitchen, whatever my youngest likes to stash around the house (like those gum drops), but I wonder where he's getting water. I don't believe he will entertain the cats' eating/drinking area. I read mice have good "smellers," so if they smell my cats' scent, he won't go there.
 
I had no idea feline saliva was toxic! Though Chewbacca usually doesn't leave enough rodent to be viable anyway ...
It's the occasional lizard tails in the house that make me wonder ... what happened to the rest of the lizard?
 
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Yes, it's always freaky to see the lizard tail jumping all around without the lizard attached to it. My girl cat, loves lizards and snakes, and she loves bringing them into the house. We don't have too many large snakes or poisonous snakes in the area, so what she brings in is something small, usually like a ring neck.
 
The tail is designed to come off so the lizard can get away - hold onto that thought.

OK - you guys have serious stuff - a snake would have me standing on a chair like a frightened schoolgirl and I sure as hell am not going to check whether its poisonous or not!
 
The tail is designed to come off so the lizard can get away - hold onto that thought.

OK - you guys have serious stuff - a snake would have me standing on a chair like a frightened schoolgirl and I sure as hell am not going to check whether its poisonous or not!

And their tail will grow back which is so cool.

A rabbit has very thin skin, like paper-thin (it even rips like paper), on the back to help it get away from predators too. The problem is, the cat predator's saliva is toxic to it, so it will die regardless. There's a rabbit rehabber somewhat nearby (the vet won't even look at wild animals), but you have to get the rabbit to them ASAP because the toxin starts to work very quickly. I tried this once, but by the time we got all the way up there, the bunny was dead. Turns out having the A/C on in the dead of summer put it into shock. I didn't want my kids whining about how hot the long drive was. Lesson learned.
 
I had a cat once that found a bunny nest. He carefully brought me one baby bunny, then went back and got another one for me. I put them in a box with some grass and set them free (elsewhere) later that afternoon. Unfortunately my cat kept the other two for himself ...
 
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He gave you two and kept two for himself. Oh, how so not-selfish was he?!
 
So after all this time, finally, Mr. Mouse is outside where he belongs, and in one piece. And yes, he's a he because I saw his boy parts, so I don't have to worry about baby mousies being left behind in the house.

Booms caught him on the 28th, I grabbed him, the mouse got away, the cat ran after the mouse, caught the mouse again, I grabbed the cat again, the mouse got away again, but this time, it ran under a kicking pad which my son held tight on top of the mouse with its little hiney sticking out. I grabbed it by its tail and put him in a large cup and covered it. We gave him lots of cheese, which he devoured, then I gave him a milk cap full of water, which he held onto with his little hands while I held onto the other side of it. It was so cute! But I couldn't get pictures, because I feared he would get away again if I took my hands away from the box we had him in to get a picture. I made sure he was nice and dry, no cat slobber on him, let him sleep off the rest of the day and through the night, then the next morning, I put him outside in our woods. I left him in his box with a little wash cloth blankie and some cheese with the flaps turned on the side, so he could leave when he was ready. I told him not to come back and not to get caught again, patted the box, and walked away. Pooh. I miss him. I thought about keeping him in our hamster (long story) habit trail set, but I don't need the trouble of taking care of something so small and cleaning up after it all the time and worrying about the cat's getting to something I would be falling in love with. sigh.
 
Good for you and Mr. Mousie!! I haven't caught anything in my traps, but then I haven't seen any more poop on my desk, so I suspect ours moved on since there wasn't really anything to eat around here.
 
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My mom said I should have kept the mouse and kicked the cats outside. Hee.
 
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My neighbor emailed me yesterday to tell me that her cat brought in a dead mouse! Oh no. I hope it's not Mr. Mouse!
 
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