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Oldest kitty, no over the bridge, was a stray who lived off the land before coming to us to be spoiled, was an extremely adept hunter - he'd had to be to survive. He loved showing off his skill and often brought presents home - a half a snake, almost dead (still fluttering) birds, mice of course (brought INSIDE from the woods), and parts. Parts of what? Not always identifiable, but often guts on the back porch, a beak from time to time, fur from bunnies. Oh the joys. So when he was beginning to show signs of aging, we got him a kitten for companionship. And he taught her well, but she never understood hunger and so it was mostly a game. Live birds were often found fluttering and chirping throughout various rooms of the house with a kitty chasing them from top of one furniture to another.
And finally the littlest one, a stray who lived in our yard for the first month of his life until I captured him. What a good hunter - it's how he survived - and at 2 yrs old, he still doesn't like canned food much. It's not fresh! He gets a huge kick out of chasing flies, moths, (and he eats them) and he was quite adept at catching squirrels along with the smaller of nature's bounty.
Ah, found the email I remembered. This was a couple of years ago, when Sis was living in a first-floor apartment of a huge 120-year-old mansion that hadn't been very well maintained. At the time, she had a pair of orange tabbies (she has since added two more "unadoptable" kitties from a rescue group to her family), and this was part of her response when I emailed her the story of Finn's first mouse:
So you see, OP, not only could it have been worse if you had only found part of a mouse, if you were REALLY unlucky, your successful hunter could be awakening you in the middle of the night to show you his still-squeaking prize.
Ah, kitties.... whatever would we do without them to entertain us???
My one cat does that. She learned enough to catch. She would bring the perfectly health catch in the bedroom to show me what she'd done and let it go, and then it would run in the closet. I'd end up opening the door and bringing in a more efficent cat to finish off the job.
I lived in one place once where the mice were everywhere, and you'd hear them at night in your room running around. Can't abide mice....
I moved into a great house about 6 months ago. Before I moved in, I had a critter guy come and close up as many holes to the outside as he could find, as I am totally grossed out by mice especially. He said he couldn't guarantee that I would never again see a mouse, but 99% of the holes were filled. I understood, as I live on about 1.29 acres with a ton of trees ... which is, maybe ironically, why I bought the house!
Well, yesterday I found a dead mouse in the living room. That part of the house was relatively dark so I didn't see it at first even thought it was near the entrance ... I was turning on a lamp and I saw what looked like string and then I thought, "Ugh, is that a mouse tail?" And yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, it was.
Several cats had followed me into the living room, but apparently now that the mouse was dead, they didn't have any interest in it. Actually I am very glad about that, because hopefully it means if it happens again, they won't have the urge to "bring mommy a present."
I think it had happened overnight the night before ... something in the hall had been knocked over, and I am surmising that one or more cats chased it from the kitchen through the hall and into the living room.
Needless to say I am totally freaking out, and grossed out. I locked the kitties away in a spare bedroom, then I covered the mouse with a grocery bag, then a large piece of scrap fabric, then went to find my gripper tool so I could stay 3 feet away when picking it up ... but even with all that, it STILL took me an hour to pick the d*** thing up and deposit it into a trash bag because I kept getting grossed out and feeling like I was going to throw up (and then I immediately added a lot more trash on top so I wouldn't take a chance on glancing down and seeing it again).
I am sure all this sounds like an over-reaction, but man, I still feel like vomiting every time I think about it. So one question I have is, is there any way to de-sensitize yourself to things like dead mice? I don't know why I have such a strong reaction, but I can't seem to make it go away, and living where I do, I guess it's not realistic to think I will never see one again.
And BTW, this dead mouse had all its parts so it wasn't even extra-gross and dismembered ... i.e., none of the kitties had eaten any of it. They seem to have just caught it and batted it to death? Ugh.
Are you my twin?! I am petrified and grossed out with mice. I cannot even look at a Dcon package or a mouse trap, cannot look at a dead mouse, cannot look at a live mouse. We sold a beautiful older home because I couldn't deal with the mouse problem anymore...after hiring a company to come in to try and get rid of them. They will always find a way. Our home was surrounded by a few acres, so I assume the field mice were coming in. We had a cat also who would lug them up from the basement or attic. I remember one time I sucked one up in a new vacuum cleaner (by accident) and ended up giving the vacuum cleaner away. I got the shivers just reading your post.
Honestly, as I read some of these stories I get grossed out all over again. THANK THE POWERS THAT BE that my kitties just do the kill and then lose interest -- I don't know what I would do if they decided to bring the corpse TO me.
I moved into a great house about 6 months ago. Before I moved in, I had a critter guy come and close up as many holes to the outside as he could find, as I am totally grossed out by mice especially. He said he couldn't guarantee that I would never again see a mouse, but 99% of the holes were filled. I understood, as I live on about 1.29 acres with a ton of trees ... which is, maybe ironically, why I bought the house!
Well, yesterday I found a dead mouse in the living room. That part of the house was relatively dark so I didn't see it at first even thought it was near the entrance ... I was turning on a lamp and I saw what looked like string and then I thought, "Ugh, is that a mouse tail?" And yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, it was.
Several cats had followed me into the living room, but apparently now that the mouse was dead, they didn't have any interest in it. Actually I am very glad about that, because hopefully it means if it happens again, they won't have the urge to "bring mommy a present."
I think it had happened overnight the night before ... something in the hall had been knocked over, and I am surmising that one or more cats chased it from the kitchen through the hall and into the living room.
Needless to say I am totally freaking out, and grossed out. I locked the kitties away in a spare bedroom, then I covered the mouse with a grocery bag, then a large piece of scrap fabric, then went to find my gripper tool so I could stay 3 feet away when picking it up ... but even with all that, it STILL took me an hour to pick the d*** thing up and deposit it into a trash bag because I kept getting grossed out and feeling like I was going to throw up (and then I immediately added a lot more trash on top so I wouldn't take a chance on glancing down and seeing it again).
I am sure all this sounds like an over-reaction, but man, I still feel like vomiting every time I think about it. So one question I have is, is there any way to de-sensitize yourself to things like dead mice? I don't know why I have such a strong reaction, but I can't seem to make it go away, and living where I do, I guess it's not realistic to think I will never see one again.
And BTW, this dead mouse had all its parts so it wasn't even extra-gross and dismembered ... i.e., none of the kitties had eaten any of it. They seem to have just caught it and batted it to death? Ugh.
The way you get over this is by taking control of yourself. Talk yourself through it:" I'm an adult, I don't have to touch it, it is 100X or 1000X smaller and I am that much stronger than it, I will wash my hands very thoroughly after" Just take a wad of paper towel, cover the mouse, and grab it with the paper towel, then throw in trash. I do the same with creepy crawlers. You think I was always okay with it, no, I was same as you. But living off the grid in the bush made it necessary for me to take control over my fears whatever they were.
The guts most likely, they don't eat the guts. But your cats, while their hunting instinct is strong, in at least one of your cats, she obviously doesn't recognize it at food. She thinks it's a Game.
My little cat was like that the first time she caught a mouse, when we were outside in our yard. She killed it instantly, and then was so surprised that it didn't move any more. She didn't understand..because all the 'mice' she kills inside during Games always move again when Mommie makes them move.
Top Cat, who lived by her own wits for who knows how long, knows what mice are for, and when she catches one (while we are in the yard) she starts nomming until I get it away from her.
My cat eats all of it, including gophers, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, mice, voles. Cats will play with mice, yes. It's not cruel. Its instinct, Nature.
We are used to having mice, moles, birds, and snakes in the house, some dead, some alive, and some in the process of being eaten.
If they are alive, we catch them and put them outside in a safe place.
I don't check up on them, so what ever fate awaits them is probably better than being eaten alive by a cat.
Some times they escape and hide in the closet, or under the bed where we can't get them.
We watch them so we know where they are. But then we, and the cats, usually forget about them until they come out again.
The worse part is getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and stepping on a bloody, half eaten creature with your bare feet.
In the two years I've had Mrs. Robinson, she's caught just one mouse in the garage that I know of. She was very happy and excited about it and was enthusiastic in showing the mouse to me laying on the floor dead. Before I could scoop it up and dispose of it, she picked it up herself and swallowed it whole. No blood or guts. She was saving it just long enough for me to see it.
It must have been a great treat for her because being feral for many years, she's probably caught hundreds of them in her lifetime and I'm certain she's very good at it. It probably brought back some great culinary memories for her, much like eating real pasta when you're in Italy.
The way you get over this is by taking control of yourself. Talk yourself through it:" I'm an adult, I don't have to touch it, it is 100X or 1000X smaller and I am that much stronger than it, I will wash my hands very thoroughly after" Just take a wad of paper towel, cover the mouse, and grab it with the paper towel, then throw in trash. I do the same with creepy crawlers. You think I was always okay with it, no, I was same as you. But living off the grid in the bush made it necessary for me to take control over my fears whatever they were.
That was an 8-year-old post you responded to, in case you didn't notice.
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But your cats, while their hunting instinct is strong, in at least one of your cats, she obviously doesn't recognize it at food. She thinks it's a Game.
