Eekamouse

slsh

member since 1999
Had to share this - it just cracked me up. Winter has struck with a vengeance here in the Windy City. I've taken to working with fingerless gloves on and a spaceheater by my side - it's just wicked cold.

So I head into the kitchen this morning to try to warm up my frozen coffee and as I pass thru the living room, I notice that our 2 younger cats, Elsie and Soda, are sitting across from each other on the floor, about 3 feet apart. Miracle in itself because the girls (sisters) fight like... well, like cats. When they're not hissing at each other, they're sitting by the front window hissing at cats that roam the neighborhood. Pretty cranky girls.

So I take a closer look and there's this tiny brown thing on the floor between them. Yep, a little field mouse. Our back yard backs up to a park so we tend to get a variety of critters throughout the year. Mice are no big thing. This was the *cutest* tiniest little thing I've ever seen, much smaller than a golf ball, with Dumbo ears. It was just sitting in a little puffed up brown ball between the girls. Everytime it moved, the girls would cooperatively adjust their positions to keep the mouse in place. I watched for probably 5 minutes. Mouse twitches, cats move.

Finally Elsie, who is far more a mouser than fat old Soda, had enough and started to "play" with Mr. Mousie. She's a *really* good mouser. Fortunately, Mr. Mousie had the good sense to jump into a shoe by the front door so I was able to scoop him up and deposit him outside. Felt guilty doing that actually because it's so doggone cold but then I decided that mice have been here forever - there must be alternative housing for them besides my living room!

Of course, about an hour later when I headed in for another coffee defrost, it looked like someone had TP'd my kitchen with the paper towels. Couldn't figure what on earth was going on since I was home alone, until I found a mouse underneath the paper towels. Elsie (I'm assuming it was her) got herself a mouse but good. I'm surprised I didn't hear the ruckus she must have made - seriously, paper towels from one end to the other, over the table, under the table.

I really hate the idea that we have gaps in our house big enough for these critters to get in, more because that means we have gaps where heat is getting *out*, but at least we have a good mouser!!
 

Andy

Active Member
:pet:
.​
Very good kitties! Poor little mice - even the cute ones - just remember that they grow up to be nasty.

I love that story! :)
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I love a good mouser, but I can't stand watching a cat "play" with a mouse. I'd have scooped him up and placed him outside too.

Bruce isn't too bad at mousing. Not the greatest. But he's getting the idea. lol
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
How funny! I'd love to see the cats with a little mouse blocked in between them!

My Bostons are the mousers in our house! They're as fast as any cat and just as patient. They will chase any little thing that moves. Ragan has been at it the longest and she's positively deadly to mice! If one runs across the floor, she's got it. They don't eat them but they like to carry them around in their mouth. Ragan will eventually spit hers out in the living room in her spot by the heater.

Katy, on the other hand, doesn't want to give hers up. She has to be bribed with cookies. She has a real moral dilema when she realizes that she'll have to spit out the mouse if she wants to eat the cookie, but eventually the cookie wins out and she gives up the mouse. When she knows I'm trying to get her to spit out the mouse, she sometimes tries to keep me from seeing that she's got one in there. She keeps turning away from me and walking away like she thinks I don't know. I wish I had a camera the day this chubby little black and white dog was walking around with her cheeks puffed out and two tiny little back feet and a tail hanging out of her mouth ... and she's giving me this look, like "Whuuut?"
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
In Georgia, I was 15 and home alone for the weekend. There was a mouse. We had 7 cats - or maybe it was 5 then, I can't remember. We had a few. Anyway, the mouse was behind a door in the corner of the door and the wall. I picked up two of the cats and placed one at each side of the door. They stayed there watching the mouse and I went to bed secure in the knowledge that I didn't have to worry about the mouse running across my feet in my sleep.

Next morning, cats are no longer there and the mouse is crouched under one of the tower speakers. Sigh. So, I grabbed Taffy - the one who always brought us 'presents' - showed him the mouse, he picked it up, I opened the door, he went outside and bit it's head off. He didn't mess around. I felt really bad that the mouse had spent the night in fear. I didn't want it to suffer. I just wanted it gone. I'm glad Taffy got it because he didn't torture them.

My cats now...Puddles loses interest pretty quick, but Abbey would get it...probably Hydro, too. Abbey, however, is sadistic. She would torture it. Fortunately, we haven't had a mouse in the house in years. We did once when it was just Cassie and Baby Kitty. They were sharing their food with it. I couldn't figure out why I was going through so much cat food. Then I saw it peaking out from under the basement door. I put a towel under the door so it couldn't get upstairs anymore and it moved on. Probably next door; I lived in a duplex at the time.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Our very old man Shadow died a few months ago. he was a very special cat. All we had to do was open the door and yell "Mouse! Protect Momma!) and he would come sprinting in. He ALWAYS stayed between the mouse and my mom - even if it meant it took longer to catch the mouse (or shrew - we have LOTS of shrews and they are MUCH worse, in my opinion).

while Shadow was alive Sammy wasn't much of a mouser. Some of you may remember the day he lost a mouse - behind Jessie's soccer ball!!!!

now that Shadow has passed on, Sammy is becoming quite efficient in mouse dispatching. Tommy will do it if ASKED, but you have to ask NICELY. And I do mean saying the actual words. He doesn't like to eat them, not at all - so he will give them up for a treat PDQ.

Sammy seems to like to chew on them. We try not to let him because that is a great way to get abscesses and diseases. and he likes to give them to certain people. If he is mad at you, he will HIDE the dead mouse until someone else comes home!!!

Actually, thinking back, we have had several cats who came when we would call out "Mouse! Protect Momma!" or even Protect Susie. Even our very ill Squeaker would find and kill them. Even several MONTHS after he went blind!

I am glad you got the mice out of the house.

To stop them from getting in, stuff very fine steel wool around the areas pipes and wires come into the house. And any other hole.

And a way to help the heat stay in is to put insulators around the electrical sockets and light fixtures. You buy them at the store (even Walmart had them last I looked) and then you take off the outlet cover, put these in and put the cover back on. It is as simple as taking a screw or 4 out and then putting them back on.

the first time we used them we saw a real difference in our heating bill.

Hugs to the mousers, and to you!
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Sue,

We get the mice & our Samson love play time with his new toys. (Only 1 so far this year - we average 3 or 4 during the winter).

If it makes you feel any better my dad told me that it doesn't take much of an opening. Mice can squeeze through pretty tiny openings. Check your dryer vent - make sure that's covered on the outside.

Last year the opening came off my dad's dryer vent & he dried a load of laundry with a horribly smelling chipmunk. I laugh; that's because I was 325 miles away. I can laugh then.
 

'Chelle

Active Member
We get the occasional mouse, we live in an old house that backs on to a field area. Hadn't had one for a couple years though. Last week I came home from my company Christmas party and was walking to the bathroom and noticed one of our kitties sitting in the hall with a little gray thing in front of her and thought "oh I wonder where she found one of her mousie toys" and when I got close I realized it wasn't a toy but a little dead mouse. I guess to her it was a toy LOL. Had to keep pushing her away trying to pick it up to throw it away. It's kinda nice to know that we don't have to worry about setting traps, if a mouse finds it's way in the natural order of things will pretty much take care of it for us. I think mousies are cute, as long as they stay in their own field and not come in my house. Then they're gross pee machines. EWWWW
 
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