I can see her now, crouched under the coffee table, glaring balefully at me from time to time.
She caught a mouse. This is a common thing in these parts, and we love finding these little presents left right where we walk in the middle of the night. She gets a special treat before we take the mouse away and dispose of it.
So when she came trotting in with a mouse in her mouth, I didn’t think much of it. I put the laptop down, went and got the pliers (for the mouse) and the treat (for Kitty), and crouched down next to her. The mouse was limp and lifeless, hanging in her jaws. I stroked her head and she reluctantly let the mouse drop to the floor. I reached for it with the pliers –
– and the mouse emitted what I can only translate as “Hallelujah!” and levitated a good foot off the floor, before rocketing away into the wilderness behind my entertainment center.
Great. My cat is pissed at me for letting the mouse go, and I’ve got a mouse loose in my house. :smack:
We’ve had that happen with both a bird and a mouse.
With the bird, things were simpler. Ishtar brought in a bird for the edification of her mates who are not allowed outside. Ruckus ensued, but when the scene quietened down, a purple grackle was lying on the floor, feet up, motionless. I picked up the bird and took it outside. I lay it on the step next to me, while I reflected on my options: interment or garbage. Within seconds, the bird flew off.
The mouse incident was slightly different. It happened just a week ago when the weather was unseasonably warm here. Ishtar brought in a live mouse. Pandemonium ensued, as all 3 cats chased the little thing. In this case, the ruckus lasted a LONG time, as the poor critter scuttled from room to room, from putative hiding place to another. Finally, my husband, having chased away the felines, found the mouse behind a hamper, cornered, lying on his side, apparently dead. Lucky for him, he had taken a facecloth with which to remove the “corpse”, so the mouse didn’t escape, and he was able to put the miraculously revived mouse outside the door to the garden. He feels guilty about that, but what else could we do? Surely, a household with 3 cats is not an appropriate home for a tiny mouse.
We HAVE a newer, younger, faster cat. Unfortunately, Kitty v2.0 was released without the Predator plug-in. She just watches prey scurry by, then has to get the heck outta the way in a hurry as the older cat comes through. It’s pretty funny to watch.
I also add that it could be a hardware problem. You may have to get the harness, the heatsink, the buzzsaw, the tusks, and the .12 caliber machine gun mounted on the kitty’s spine.
Maggie did that to me…came racing into my room like a bat out of hell, with a LIVE mouse. I don’t think I got a wink of sleep that night, because it kept popping up and disappearing.
We had a similar problem once. The cat brought in a mouse and played with it till she got bored, at which point it ran away behind the entertainment center. Later, as we were looking for the mouse, it scurried out from under the vacuum cleaner, at which point the golden retriever snatched the poor thing up in her mouth. Her very, VERY wet (but soft) mouth. As long as I live, I’ll never forget the sight of the dog with her jaw clenched determinedly with the mouse tail dangling out one side where her tongue usually fell out.
When we finally pried her jaws open, the mouse was unharmed. Half-drowned but unharmed.
Merlin is just starting to get over being pissed off at me. I don’t see how this was my fault, though. I checked the guest bedroom before closing the door before we went away for the weekend. If he didn’t want to be stuck in there for 48+ hours, he shouldn’t have been hiding under the bed.
Poor little guy…what I’m really amazed about is not finding a trace of poop or pee anywhere.
My most precious kitty-Ms Tree-had an adventure where she was trapped in our closet for ten days. No mess was discovered until we did the laundry. The hamper was one of those sorter/hanging bag contraptions. Apparrently she hopped up onto the “folding shelf” and balanced her hindquarters off the edge over the hanging hamperbag and then did her business. Then she must have meditated. Because she did not lose any weight. But she was famished when freed.
And I took away the small snake she caught and brought inside the house.
Shadow’s already had his tuna priveliges revoked for a few days after he marked his territory by pissing on my bed. Twice. Luckily I managed to catch it before too much damage was done (three lots of bedding washed in four days and the duvet sponged out twice) but he’s now sulking because he’s not allowed in my bedroom any more.
Ophelia’s also sulking because the bedroom door’s shut all day when I’m not in the house so she can’t get in there either. She has to make do with coming up to bed with me and spending the night on the bed because I know she can behave herself.
Shadow will be sulking even more tomorrow night as he’s off to the vets to have his nads chopped off in the morning.
My cat, Fiona (RIP) used to do that when she’d get a bladder infection. Happened about twice a year with her. She’d get up on me on the bed and “tell me” she was in distress by squatting right there. The antibiotics always stopped it cold.
Ours are gonna be ticked at us in a couple of weeks, as we’re having the living room, dining room, and stairs to the lower level refinished. The process will take 5-6 working days, and during that time our only option is to shut the kitties into the bedrooms. The 4 that get along will go into one bedroom, and the one little calico that dislikes all the others goes into another. Fortunately, the front hall and the hallway to the bedrooms isn’t part of the refinishing, so we can get to the bedrooms and check on them (I’m decamping to a nearby hotel for the duration, and Mrs. Runestar is off to Canada for a business trip).
Still, they’re definitely not going to like being cooped up for all that time. I’m wondering if we should just pull the pillows, etc., off of the beds now, and remove any convenient targets for expressing displeasure.
