Since I moved back east, I’ve had this horrible, nearly phobia-level fear of running into a deer with my car. Not something I had to seriously worry about in good old Southern California. We are adjacent to significant amounts of forested park land, and seeing deer in the woods, on the side of the road, IN the road, and in our yards is fairly common. I know it’s going to happen at some point, and it gives me pause when I have to drive at night. Clearly the worst thing about living on this side of the country.
So imagine my surprise yesterday morning when a completely different problem presented itself to me. Or rather, was presented to me. When I opened the bedroom door and found the two cats sitting near a toy mouse. A toy mouse in a weird, very dead-looking pose—HEEEEEEEEY wait a second, that’s an actual dead mouse!!!
I am a delicate city boy. These things aren’t supposed to happen.
I’ve been told that it’s really hard to keep mice out of your house, especially when you live next to the woods and especially when it gets cold. But I’ve basically stuck my fingers in my ears during those conversations. DO NOT WANT. How do I go back to the innocent days when things like dead-mouse delivery don’t happen in the real world?
Gah.
P.S. - Yes, I was also told that I was fortunate to have found said mouse to be fully intact, and that I might not be so lucky in the future. <returning fingers to ears>
Weird, man. This happened to me the other day with the dogs, for the first time in my life, and I’ve lived out here in what you’d probably call “the boonies” this whole time.
They found it outside and brought it in, though. Seems like your critter was already in the house?
What’d you do with it when you found it? How did you dispose of it? Did it involve any shrieking?
Yes, our cats are indoor cats, so definitely bad news in that sense.
As to disposing of it, my wife offered to relieve me of that duty, but I opted to suck it up and handle it myself. I only shrieked on the inside. Paper towels, into trash bag, trash bag taken to the outside trash, and thankfully, today is trash day. So at least the one offender will be far away by the time I get home.
You are right to worry about deer vs car. It is frequent occurrence close to wooded areas and I hear in suburbs with large grassy areas. I live in the outback of so. Arkansas, I’ve hit more deer than I can count. I’ve totalled 2 vehicles. It is the bain of my existence. I hate deer, I hate deer season. They are out to kill me. But…dont know how well they work, but there us a whistle device you can install on your car, that scare deer off the highway. And, one more thing, I’ve been driving in this area since I was 16yo, and I ain’t dead yet. So that’s something, I guess. As for the cats, good kitties, wait til they put one in your bed, then we will talk!
I was given clear instruction that the cats were to be appreciated for their effort and thoroughly praised. They are being given access to more of the house than usual, and in particular, the basement, just in case.
However, given the usual laziness of these two felines when it comes to chasing things, I’m still half of the opinion that the mouse climbed the stairs to our bedroom by itself and died from sheer boredom.
That’s so funny, One of my cats actually got a beat down by a mouse. We were on the screened porch, an unsuspecting mouse thought it would stroll by, my ‘not-so-smart’ cat jumped up and started stalking the mouse, he turned around and jumped on the cats head. That is when the hilarity started. The cat went berserk and running around and howling. I saw fur flying. I got up and opened the back door, the cat ran inside and the mouse skeeddadled off the porch. It took about 3 seconds for this whole thing to unfold. But we have laughed about it for, IDK ten or so years. It’s amazing what small event can do to create good humor in your life. Moral: keep your good humor intact!
Many years ago a snap trap didn’t kill a mouse instantly. It broke its back instead of its neck, and it was barely conscious – but conscious nonetheless. I took it outside and couldn’t bring myself to stomp on it, nor to decapitate it with a shovel or an axe. I ended up dispatching it with a snakeshot round from my H&R 999. As cute as they are, I don’t mind (much) finding a dead one in a trap. But I hated seeing the poor thing suffer in the trap that didn’t kill it. Mice are not something I was accustomed to in L.A. And I certainly would not have been able to shoot it there.
We haven’t heard any scurrying in the attic since we had some repairs done several years ago. The cats have caught rodents and birds outside, but (touch wood) we haven’t detected any mice in the house*. The giant house spiders have been scarce since we’ve had cats too.
***** Mrs. L.A. said we had rats in the house a couple of weeks ago, when she saw rat turds in the deep sink. In actuality, I’d brought in a Halloween decoration that had been in the lawn and cleaned it in the deep sink, and the ‘rat turds’ were small slugs. They met a salty end.
Good news, altho a house with cats is by no means 100% mouse proof, the little rodents will go for the house without cats as a preference. You shouldnt see many mice. or peices therof.
Good story! Decades ago I raised mice. I would give the sick ones for free to a local library and school to feed their snakes.
The library called one day, so I looked into the cage, and saw one rather beat up looking male. OK, off to the snake pit! However, what I didnt know is that male was the boss, and when he was put into the snake cage he attacked the snake, and took out one eye before we pulled him off.
Yes, mr Mighty Mouse got a trip home. Afterwards the snake would only eat “pinkies”.
I can inject a dog tale here. In 1980, my Dad and hence us, were living in colonel’s quarters in Fort Benning GA. Big yard to rake, old but cool house, etc. We had a dachsund named Pretzel. Pretzel was extremely frightened of my father, who ruled the house with a semi-iron fist. I once watched Pretzel eat his own poop in my brother’s room just to avoid punishment from my Dad.
This was an old house, and squirrels somehow were getting into it. My Dad was finding pecans in his jumpboots from them, which my brother and I thought was hilarious.
One early morning, there was Pretzel, at the bottom of the stairs, awaiting my Dad. He had displayed in front of him not one, not two but THREE dead baby squirrels. They were neatly laid out in a row at the bottom of the stairs for my Dad to witness. Apparently this was a “moment” between man and dog and my Dad thereafter almost worshipped this weiner dog, and he cried like a baby when they had to put him down in 1993. THAT’S loyalty and why we keep pets.
The symbiosis between cats and humans is chiefly predicated on humans not wanting rodents around them and cats hunting rodents. It’s what they do. Just make sure your cats don’t catch anything and only use mousetraps which are safe for cats.
Good kitties! Back when I lived in downtown San Bernardino. I lived in a small apartment on a busy street less than half a mile from downtown. No country for miles. I had cats. My bathroom door was about 4 feet from the bed, and the cat food was in the bathroom.
Imagine my delight when I found mouse poop in their kibble bowl. The mice were having a party less than 5 feet from the bed my worthless, but very cute, cats allowed me to share with them.
My 2 current cats, ‘holier than thou’ Siamese, wouldn’t stoop to catching a mouse. Maybe if served under glass with a nice sauce, Nah, they wouldn’t eat it either. Their favorite game is to pretend to like a particular food long enough that I feel safe buying a lot of it. And all of a sudden not like it anymore. Being owned by cats is particularly hard torment, some days.
Mice are not something I was accustomed to in L.A. And I certainly would not have been able to shoot it there.