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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 3:09 am 
OK, I'm attempting my first Daily Thread. Let's hope all goes well. If not, I know the mods will fix it! :grin

About three weeks ago, the gf and I discovered there are mice living in the house. The cats staking out the dishwasher was a big clue. :hmm Every night they would position themselves near the diswaher and just stare. At first I thought, "Hee hee, how cute! They must spot a spider or something." And then it happened. They cornered one. I was so Proud of them! :grin My cats have always been house cats. I never let them outside so they never had an opportunity to let nature take it's course. As a result, I was extremely proud of my two babies. I compare the feeling I had for them kinda like what I imagine a parent would feel when their child brings home the first "A" on a report card. :p

Anyway, the next night my two little sweethearts not only cornered one, but disemboweled one. :shock I have to admit that as proud as I was, I was also grossed out. After the disembowelment, we decided it was time to get some humane traps. This morning, we released Mousy number 6 into the wild. I am starting to get worried how many more are around. :\

My daily thread question is this: Have your animals ever done something that made you feel proud of them? Or are you compeletly grossed out by the entire natural instinct thing they have to kill and bring you presents?
And just to broaden the question a little more: Have they done anything that has made you laugh your ass off? I know my Sammy is full of constant entertainment.

And as for our two favorite witches: What do you think Miss Kitty Fantastico would do if presented with an opportunity to show off her natural instincts? Would our girls be proud of her or a little grossed out?

I think that even with all the Hellmouth activities, Willow and Tara would probably feel a little grossed out around dead rodents.

Edited to change the name of the daily thread! I thought I had reviewed all the daily threads pretty thoroughly, but I missed one that was already titled Cat and Mouse. So, I apologize to BBOvenGuy. :(


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 4:06 am 
I grew up in a pretty rural area, and we always had cats. Our cats--the females especially--were ferocious hunters. And they had no shortage of prey in such a wooded area. So I basically grew up thinking it perfectly normal when kitty brought home some dead/ dismembered critter and proudly left it on the front porch. We had one cat who was just amazing--she would bring down rabbits almost as big as she was. And she seemed to have this motto, "one mouse good, five mice better." It was nothing to find three or four dead mice on the front lawn in the morning--really big ones, too. So we were always very proud of her, praised her lavishly, etc.

Our tomcats usually didn't hunt, but we had one who just loved bugs. Insects, moths, spiders, it didn't matter--he'd chase them down, smoosh them up with his front paws, and swallow them down. His favorite, for some reason, was daddy longlegs.

The last cat we had was an on-again off-again hunter. She was unbelievably lazy most of the time, but if she heard a mouse or a bird or an insect, suddenly she would spring into action so fast it was amazing. Once, she gobbled a mouse down more or less whole... and my poor sister found the regurgitated corpse on the hallway rug. You never heard anyone bellow "MOM!" so loudly in your life. :lol

I think that if Miss Kitty ever caught something, W/T would smile and praise her rather weakly, then look at each other and go "Ewwwww!" Somehow, I imagine Tara as the one who would have to get rid of the yuckies. :eek

Firefoot
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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 9:23 am 
Well my cat hasn't actually come upon any mice yet but i think if she eved did, she'd disembowel it too. Her cutest thing that she does is do back flips. When I dangle her little toy mouse, she leaps into the air to catch it and does backflips and defies gravity as she does it. She also has figured out to finally work her water dish. If she hits the lever, more water comes out. I was so proud of her for that.

I think W/T would be extremely proud of MKF. But maybe they would feel a little bad for the dead mouse.


~Erica


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 1:15 pm 
Hello Kittens-

I have no memory of our first pet, a big tom cat that let me carry him around and pet him without complaint. One day he just wasn't there. The lady who had given him to us had run him over and come apart when she found out I learned years later.

Just a little while later we got a purebred Boxer bitch who was too big to be a show dog, which is how we got her as we were short of money. She loved kids and once let me pour sand in her ears, and then growled at my mom when she gave me a swat for doing that to the dog. We both ended up with what today is called a time out, mom never let either of us forget who was the alpha :) But what made me proud was how she broke up fights with the neighbor kids. She'd lick one and push her buzzing stump of a tail in the other one's face.

Now I live an apartment with neither cat nor dog :( but I do house sit for our friends who have both along with our godchildren. So I suppose I have the world's largest lap dog for a goddog and a very crochety but soft furred old cat for a godcat.

Jixer


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 3:36 pm 
We lived in a small, out-in-the-country town when I was little. We had a few cats, but I have no recollection of any hunting activities (we moved into the city when I was 4).

The only cats I've really known since then were my Dad's, all declawed housecats. Not even allowed into the back yard, poor guys, but they did pay extremely close attention out the back patio door to even the slightest trespass over the fence, whether squirrel, racoon, neighbour cat or human.


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 3:45 pm 
Growing up, we had a Labrador Retriever named Brutus. When we got him, I was 6, my older brother was 9 and my mom was 6 months pregnant with my younger brother. We were living with my grandmother who wasn't too thrilled with having a new puppy in her house but things quickly changed. After my brother was born, everytime my mom had the baby's picture taken, she had one done of Brutus too. He was trained very well and barely used a leash for walks. My grandmother even walk him.
When Brutus was 8, one day my family all went to a barbeque but my grandmother wasn't feeling well and for some strange reason, Brutus wouldn't get in the car so we left him home with her. We got home at dusk and saw the TV flickering. We all thought that she felt better and decided to go to bingo with her friends and left the TV on which she did sometimes if Brutus was home alone. When we walked in the house, he was pacing back and forth in front of my grandmother who was slumped over in her chair. Everyone in my family is involved in Police, Fire or EMS so we knew she was having a stroke. My mom called the ambulance and knowing there was some people who would show up with the ambulance hearing our address who were afraid of him even though the only thing he may do would be drown you with the licks, so I put him on his leash and took him outside. While I was walking him to the neighbors, he'd cry everytime he took a step. I sat down and he put his paw on my lap which I noticed was burned. After the ambulance left with my grandmother, I showed my dad Brutus' paw and we looked at the chair my grandmother was sitting in and there was a big burn hole in it and we found a burnt out cigarette on the floor. Apparently, she was smoking when she started having the stroke and dropped the cigarette in the chair and Brutus dug it out.
After a month in the hospital, my grandmother came home and was only paralyzed in her right arm. Brutus saved her life and probably the house from burning down. My family and all our friends were very proud of him. My grandfather was a former Chief of Police before he died and the Mayor heard of what Brutus did and gave him a certificate of Honor. He was in the newspaper as rescuer of the month.
He lived until he was 16 years old and was having difficulty walking. We had him cremated and after my grandmother passed away the following year, we had his ashed buried with her so they could always be together. I don't know where you are now Brutus, but I have always been very proud of you and I will love you until my last day.

Love to All,
Barb


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 4:25 pm 
Barb:

Wow...that was an incredible story. I'm glad you shared it. Brutus sounds like he was a wonderful dog. :)


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 5:49 pm 
Barb,

that IS an amazing story. i love hearing about things like that.


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 9:22 pm 
I had some trouble sleeping at night, about two years ago, because there was a mouse in the bathroom (attached to my bedroom), that kept coming out and making noise everytime I was falling asleep.

(Honest to God - this is a true story.)

I couldn't catch the mouse, because it kept scuttling away under the sink, faster than I could grab it.

For several nights, I kept being wakened by this damn mouse, all night long. Finally, I figured out what to do...

Just before bedtime, I went and took the smallest of our six cats, dropped it into the bathroom, and shut the door. Some fast moving noises. And then quiet, blissful quiet.

Thank goodness for my little cat. Which of course leads one to the moral of the story...

For a relaxed, peaceful sleep, before bedtime, there's nothing like a little...


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 9:42 pm 
ha.

okay, my turn for my killer kitty story. We had our cat, Sammy (short for Samantha Jane - i don't quite remember who decided that Sammy needed a middle name) during the big 17-year cicada infestation in the Chicago area (17-year cicadas [there are also 13-cicadas] lay in wait in egg pods i guess in the ground for 17 years after they're laid and then come out all at once, lay more eggs, and die). There were cicadas everywhere. The local news would have little bits showing area people eating the cicadas, giving recipes, and showing all the little kids running around collecting the exoskeleton/shell from the cicadas after they shed their little crawly bugness and emerge from these shells ... with wings! At this time, we also did not have a screen over our chimneys. Cicadas came down the chimney and into our house. Which Sammy absolutely loved! She would bat them around and then eat them.

The only time I remember her catching a mouse, she kept throwing it up into the air again and again, and finally, after she started throwing it around my mom's nice living room, my mom made me take the dead mouse from Sammy and throw it away.


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2003 3:16 am 
Thanks Tiff and La. I've worked as a Veterinary Technician for 15 years and volunteer for an animal rescue group and I have yet to see another Lab that could compare to Brutus. After he died, my sister in law bought a Lab puppy for my brother for his birthday and they named him Caesar. He was dumber then dirty because he was interbred so we used to call him "Seizure" but he was very sweet and we all loved him too. But he's a totally different show.

Love to All,
Barb


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2003 4:26 am 
Barb, that story about Brutus is just wonderful. What an amazing dog!

Locally, there was a story of a disabled fellow whose collie saved his life. He was clearing snow off his porch, and the dog suddenly, for no apparent reason, got in front of this guy and literally pushed him backwards until he was off the porch. An instant later, the roof of guy's mobile home, which had around three feet of snow on it, fell down onto the porch, snow and all. Police later said that if the guy had still been on the porch, he would have been killed. It's possible that the dog heard the roof starting to collapse, and so pushed his owner to safety. The dog later received a national canine award for heroism.

Firefoot
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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2003 7:45 pm 
[quote:373df503ca]Quote:
For a relaxed, peaceful sleep, before bedtime, there's nothing like a little...
[/quote:373df503ca]

lol, bzengo. Must remind my gf.

GF has a rustic house in the mountains, and mice are always finding their way inside. But, like the line in the old Roach Motel commercials, the mice "check in, but they don't check out." That's because GF's cat and dog have formed a vermin eradication team. The two of them actually hunt together, and the mice don't stand a chance. I hope that the mouse community will realize that GF's house is a danger zone, and go elsewhere. I hate to see the little critters struggling for their lives while the dog and cat are playing with them to death.


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 1:11 am 
My kid sister's cat adores my brother and regularly climbs in his bedroom window (2nd floor) to leave dead birds. Yuck!

Pengie, my cat, wouldn't do anything like that - probably because he likes the finer things in life, like lazing around all the time! [img:021b6bfae7]http://homepage.eircom.net/~mollyig/square.gif[/img:021b6bfae7]


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 4:38 am 
Heee, I love all these stories and I'm finding I have to share - two stories.

The first concerns my cat Medea (RIP). One spring in WV, she was outside lazing about in the sun. But she was finding one nearby bush very distracting. She kept twitching her fluffy tail as she watched that bush. Finally she went over to its base and then returned to the kitchen door, her mouth stuffed full of baby bird - baby bird that was still naked, fresh from the egg baby bird. Usually getting a prize from Medea was fairly awkward. She'd moan and grumble around whatever she had in her mouth. This birdie she dropped immediately into my hand. It was still alive, and unmarked by any kitty teeth. But it had several deformities which was apparently why Momma bird had kicked it out of the nest. What to do? My Mom found a little plastic margarine dish, we lined it with tissues, and set it on the stovetop near the pilot to keep warm. Baby bird was a sparrow and we named him Woodstock. He was fed many times a day on cat food - it seemed apropos somehow. His eyes opened and one of the first things he saw besides Mom and me was Medea. We transferred him to a regular bird cage and Medea would lie along one side and he'd cuddle up beside her. It was really cute and quite easy to anthropomorphize. But I knew he'd simply imprinted on her (& us) and she was just waiting for him to fatten up a bit. :) He lived a bit less than a year but he was a sweetie while he was around. And no, we did not give him to Medea to eat. We buried him with all the other deceased pets.

Story number two involves our cat Macbeth. One of the things that you get in a mall is mice. Every bookstore I've worked in has had them. The one I'm at right now had them badly two years ago and they would get into everything. Including stuff that I was bringing home if I left it unattended in the backroom. So one evening at home I hear Darcy calling from the computer room. She said that both Macbeth and Morrigan were all over her. And that was weird, because those two cats hate one another and can't bear to be in the same room. (Macbeth, meowing: "Mom, Can I kill that black thing? Can I? Can I?" Morrigan, hissing: "I hate you! I hate you!) Anyway both these cats were in one little room together and not screaming at one another. It was weird. Then I hear Darcy again, this time from the top of the stairs. "Hey, there's a mouse up here. It just looked over the edge of the keyboard." Bold mouse. Mall mouse. Bookstore mouse. Then came the sound of multiple cat feet rushing down the stairs. Macbeth is never quiet when he runs (sounds like Sleipnir, the Norse 8-legged horse) but he had his arch nemesis, Morrigan, right beside him, so lots of noise. They came into the dining room together. Macbeth's mouth was full of wriggling mouse and Morrigan wanted it. She kept trying to bat mousie free, Macbeth kept ducking away but held on to mousie. All the time he's talking around the mouse in his "Mom, lookee!" voice. Darcy and I intervened before Morrigan scratched him. We got him to give up the mouse, slipped it into lidded plastic container - all the while being climbed on by the Morrigan who wanted the mousie very much. The mouse went outside into the backyard, was released and was never seen again. Macbeth knocked Morrigan's socks off (a daily occurrence) and she went back to the kitchen (her safe space) to sulk. The third cat, Maggie, just watched the whole thing calmly from the sideline. There has been one other mouse incident. We're pretty sure Morrigan was responsible since she is a reformed street cat and all we found were mouse parts.

Ciao, Melissa


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 7:32 am 
These stories are great. My cat Shadow istn't much of a hunter (which I am very greatful for), but one day a few years ago I came home from school to find a dead bird on the porch. I found this very sad, so I didn't go to clean it up right away. But a little while later when I was ready to go pick up the dead bird a white cat that lived across the street from us ran over to our house, picked up the dead bird, and ran away with it. It was hillarious. I don't know if it wanted to take the credit for killing this bird or if Shadow had stolen it in the first place. A couple of days later, however, I saw the same white cat pee on our porch. So I guess Shadow and the other cat had some kind of rivalry going on. Hmm...

The real hunter amongst our pets was my dog Lightning. She was a Siberian Husky and liked to "play" so much that sometimes she ended up killing small animals. This only happened with possums, but it happened repeatedly. I would wake up in the morning and go out to feed Lightning and there would be a dead possum laying near her food bowl. I would go to clean it up and she would grab it and start running around the yard like we were playing keep away or something. The worst experience was when she killed a pregnant possum. Possums are marsupials so there were little undeveloped babies all over the yard. It was so incredibly sad. I'm glad Lightning knew enough not to kill any other kind of animals, like cats, or anything I hear that sometimes Huskies have problems with that.


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 8:58 am 
Well, its not a mouse story, but I saw cockroaches last night when I went out for a meal. Fortunately , they weren't coming out of the restaurant.

It might have been because of the amount of butchers in the street -there were a lot of bloodstains, and stray cats around. I don't know - but there more cockroaches than I have ever seen apart from when I was in Central America.

I really really don't care for cockroaches.


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 Post subject: It's a Mouse Hunt Wednesday, MKF: 4/9/03
PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 3:44 pm 
Well my first cat Mitts was definitely a hunter. She was a stray, who lived under our bay window for a time, and loved to leave "presents" (mice, birds, and baby rabbits) on our front porch. We adopted her, and though mostly an indoor cat she did love to bask in the sun by stretching out on the porch. This in turn gave her ample opportunity to watch for any prey, which led to her continued hunting. I still remember her finding a tiny baby rabbit with my mother trying to gently with a broom knock it out of her mouth (Mitts of course was quite reluctant to let go). Luckily, the story had a happy ending (for the rabbit at least, who recovered after a little bit of shock... Mitts on the other hand, was mightily pissed her "toy" was taken away). However, rub her belly (not to mention a nice treat of liver, which she went gaga over... in time all was forgiven). She really was a sweet cat... sigh I still miss her.

Our pedigree cat (a Siamese) Mercedes couldn't catch a mouse if he tried. I'll never forget the time when I was in my room, and all the sudden a mouse (that somehow got into the house through the basement) ran into my room (I still can hear myself shrieking). Mercedes was hot on it's trail, but got bored cause he couldn't catch the mouse. Instead he went to sleep, and to this day we never did find that mouse. However, he did give my pet parakeet (Dixie) a heart-attack. Mitts (the hunter) knew the bird belonged so she left her alone, but Mercedes would find ways to put a fright in poor Dixie. I don't think my father (who loved that bird beyond belief) will ever forgive Mercedes for Dixie's death (we found the bird dead at the bottom of the cage with some missing feathers)

Finally, my own cat Precious is a stray I found, but so far she rather happily get fat on her cat food (she eats so much I keep thinking one day she's going to explode :lol ) than find outside critters. Although, she loves to sit by the window, and if she hears a bird or see's one she goes wild (ie I'm sure if given the opportunity she could rival Mitts in the "hunter" category).


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