Conference misery::feline_v1

    "malcontent mouse?"  "renegade rodent?"   I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    The house may be ok tonight, Edd, but I wouldn't have my beer in
    a glass if I were you......
    
    Mary-Michael

    Gee Edd, maybe it's time to get her a real baby kitten to play with
    so she will not bother the mousies!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    E.T.

    At least a mouse is an "accepted" companion.  Smokey found a mole.
    I gave him one week to "do his thing" .... no go, so an alternate
    root was taken.  Some boarders I don't mind .... moles, I do.
    
    Smokey would corner the mole and the in a very macho manner stalk
    back and forth waving his tail and purring.   It did not even occur
    to Bandit to try until her humans acted interested.  He interest
    did not last long.
    
    I always knew I'd be grateful for Smokey being an indoor cat!
    
    Cathy (Smokey & Bandit)

    ..... Hey Edd.. at AJA acknowledged it... I know if one ever DARED
    to appear at our house,, and knocked on the door,, Pookies response
    would be.. I am very sorry you have the wrong SUITE, my mother does
    not allow me to associate with  you... but thanks for stopping bye..
    Happy on the other hand... YO!!.. COME ON IN... care a snack.. !!!
    lets play...
    regards
    kATE

I should probably volunteer to lend you "Tweed the Terrible, Scourge of
the Mouse Kingdom".  My littlest cat came downstairs one night with an
obvious mouthful of something, the smothered meow was a real giveaway.
As soon as I followed her into the other room, she dropped the little
shrew so it could run around on the floor and amuse us both!

Needless to say I was NOT amused, and no amount of admonition would
convice her that a more drastic solution was required.  She just sat
there with the cutest expression and watched it run around squeaking.

Enter Tweed -- I went and found him, my head cat, and brought him into
the room.  The shrew made the mistake of running past him, and was
promptly impaled with a single claw and popped into Tweed's mouth.
End of Shrew.


Jan  who_also_has_Spats_the_rat_killer

p.s.  then I decided Tweed shouldn't eat it, try to convince a hunter
to leggo his prey -- it was several days before I was forgiven!

    I have 2 concerns...
    
       1.  She'll kill it and not eat it. Who knows where she'll 
           put the remains...
    
       2.  She'll take a shine to it and I'll find them both curled
           up on the bed...
    
    One never knows with aja...
    
    Edd

    Are you SURE you ARE forgiven ...... that will be the last shrew
    you will SEE tweed get.  Cats keep a very detailed little black
    book of insults and repay sometimes months later.  I know Smokey
    holds grudges in certain circumstances!

Re: .6

>    I have 2 concerns...
    
>       1.  She'll kill it and not eat it. Who knows where she'll 
>           put the remains...
 
Don't worry, you'll be able to find it after a while, just by 
following your nose...
   
>       2.  She'll take a shine to it and I'll find them both curled
>           up on the bed...
    
But Edd, mousies are so *cute*! And I'm sure Aja would love a little
friend. You wouldn't have to worry about pecking-order fights.  :-)
    

More mouse stories:

My old house in Goffstown was the local Mouse Motel, probably because
I put bird seed out for the wild birds. The mice would help themselves
to the seed then check in to the attic or basement and make themselves 
at home. Sometimes they made the mistake of exploring the inhabited
parts of the house.

Fuzzy Wuzzy (RIP) was a great mouser, even though he was an indoor-only
cat. He caught his first mouse when he was about 9 months old. I thought
that was pretty good, considering he had been abandoned at an early age
(4-5 weeks) and his mother didn't have much time to show him how to
shop for dinner. 

Fuzzy caught this first mouse in the kitchen; the mouse's screams for 
mercy brought me running into the room; Fuzzy bolted for the enclosed 
porch. After shutting the door to the kitchen I ran after Fuzzy
(disregarding the well-known rule: it is futile to chase a cat) while 
he dodged behind furniture. Once I got close enough to actually grab him, 
but he only held the mouse more tightly in his jaws and I was afraid
of his hurting the mouse even more. After a while the mouse's screams
stopped. Fuzzy, eyeing me from behind a chair, put the mouse down for
a second. Before I could move, he picked the mouse up again; there was
a crunch, then I retreated to the house so avoid witnessing what must
undoubtedly come next. When I returned to the porch a few minutes later
there was not so much as a mouse whisker to be found. Fuzzy was smiling.

Fuzzy caught more mice after that, but as far as I know he did not eat
them. He caught them at night, after I went to bed, and would bring them,
still alive, to the bedroom doorway. I guess he figured I needed to be
taught proper mouse ettiquette, but it never worked. 

After a while I worked out a pretty good system: Fuzzy always ran 
downstairs to the finished room in the basement with his mouse. I followed
and got the vacuum cleaner wand from the closet (Fuzzy was terrified of 
the vac). Fuzzy would drop the mouse and run back upstairs; the mouse was 
all too willing to run into the box-type live mousetrap placed in front 
of him to hide. The mouse spent the night in the garage then got a ride 
in my car in the morning to MK1 so he could find a new home in the woods 
there. 

See all the fun that could be in store for you, Edd?

Linda

    > Mousies are cute...
    
    To tell the truth, I felt sorry for the little sucker this morning.
    Ya know, BIG brown eyes, furry... (the mouse, not me) Who could
    resist.
    
    ...too bad it didn't know I wanted to help.
           
    Edd
    

    Several years ago I had a basement apartment in Dorchester.  The
    building was always clean and we only had roches once, thanks to
    a new tenant, which the super promptly got rid of.
      At any rate, one year we acquired a new tenant - I thought it
    was a mouse.  I would catch a glimpse of it as it ran along the
    wall from the lower cabinets to the stove - it was an efficiency
    kitchen so we're talking about a 3 ft distance between cabinet
    and stove. 
      Well, hunter-cat Mao started crawling UNDER the gas stove to wait
    for the "mouse". (She was smaller then)  One day she caught it.
    Turned out to be a very small rat!  Kind of cute actually, but I
    really didn't want it around.  
      Does Mao kill it?  OF COURSE NOT!  She brings it into the livingroom/
    diningroom area and puts it down on the floor to watch it.  The
    poor rat, being totally terrified, doesnt move a whisker.  So I
    stamped my foot - and he ran - and Mao ran right after him.  I
    figured if I kept making the rat run, Mao would kill him, right?
    So I kept stamping my foot and clapping my hands. At one point
    the rat ran straight for Bumpy-tail who was doing a good imitation
    of a furry ball on the other side of the room.  
      Does Bumpy go after the rat like any self-respecting cat would?
    OF COURSE NOT!  She does her Mario imitation and springs straight
    up 3 feet upon which, the rat runs directly under her and escapes
    under the baseboard.  Mao was pissed - "What kind of cat are you
    anyway?!"  She says to Bumpy.  "Didn't you read your contract!
    You're supposed to chase these things!"
      Well, Mao laid in wait several more times after that.  She
    would catch the rat and then he'd get away again.  My Significant
    other finally trapped the poor thing in the bedroom and killed it.
      The cats watched!
       

    A few months ago, I came home to find my husband in the livingroom,
    crouching in a cubby-hole we use for storage, with all the contents
    of the cubby-hole spread out on the livingroom floor.  He's shining
    a flashlight into the hole.
    
    I said "what's going on?"  "There's a mouse in the cubby-hole -
    Sneakers and Pretzel were ready to kill it, so I locked them up
    in the pantry.  Help me catch it".
    
    We spent the next half hour chasing it around the apartment and
    finally, gently enclosing it in a shoebox.  I set it free outside
    my apartment (I know, I know, it will just go right back in the
    house - but I can't kill such a cute little thing!!!).  So,
    needless to say our cats' sole purposes in life are not for
    mice-catching!!
    
    By the way, this note is coming from someone who owned several 
    PET RATS!!
    
    Pam

    When I got home last night there was no sign of either l'mouse
    or any associated parts thereof. I suppose that's good news.
    
    Aja Major, on the other hand, was considerably more friendly than
    I've come to expect. I've no idea what to make of it...
    
    Edd

    I would point all you humane persons to my note SOMEWHERE in here
    which describes my surefire, simple, humane trap for mice.  If you
    can't find it, let me know, and I'll enter it again (or add a keyword).
    
    Gary

    After reading all these "mouse" stories, I thought I'd add mine.
    A couple of months ago, my significant other was sitting at home
    watching TV in the dark, when he spies this "big bug" creeping across
    the floor of our living room.  "Ha!", he thinks... "I'll just wait
    until he creeps a little closer and then I'll wop him!"  As the
    BIG bug gets closer, my S.O. realizes this funny looking bug has
    a tail!  Turns out this was the tiniest little baby mouse you've
    ever seen!  
    
    He was about 1.5 inches long, big brown eyes and the cutest little
    twitching nose and whiskers.  Of course, my S.O. wanted to keep
    him as a pet, and though reluctant ("he could have diseases!", I
    finally agreed.  We set him up in a 10g aquarium with his own little
    wheel run and everything. He was strictly nocturnal and slept all
    the way inside a tube sock (he actually built a little nest in there!).
    
    Anyways, when we got Tashti (our cat), he'd spend HOURS sitting
    on the mousy cage waiting for Mouskers to come out and play.  Even
    during the day when there wasn't a peep or stir from the cage. 
    When Mouskers did come out, Tashti would bat, stare, jump around
    on the cage etc. but it never fazed the mouse one little bit!  They
    were so cute together!  Unfortunately, Mouskers passed away in
    November.  Tashti continued to sit on his cage for a month afterwards
    waiting for his little friend to come out, but he never did 8^(.
    They were really cute together though... I have a couple of pictures
    of the two of them.  We're thinking of maybe getting another mouse
    but none of the ones in the pet stores are nearly as cute.  
    
    Tashti won't be lonely for long though... we're expecting to get
    another kitten this spring 8^)
    
    Ruby_and_Tashti
        

    
    One night last fall, I arrived home from work and made the usual
    b-line for the bathroom and as I sat there with the door open, Velcro
    started entertaining me with what I thought was his cat nip toy
    mouse. He tossed it into the air, batted it around, jumped and played
    joyfully, but much to my surprise it was the real thing.  I realized
    it when he paused for a moment and the "toy" didn't.
    
            

    
    I'm not sure if my story is gonna top the ones I've just read,
    but here goes anyway.....
    
    About 3:30AM I was awaken by Ebony and Ivory having what I though
    was a fight.  You know, when things are being knocked over, cats
    banging into walls/doors/chairs etc.  Well, I simply woke up,
    told them to STOP, and went back to sleep. 
    
    As I was getting out of bed at about 6:30am, I noticed a blob of
    something on the floor strategically placed right where my foot 
    usually falls when I get out of bed.  I didn't make much out of 
    this 'cuz I thought it was puke (Ivory does this occasionally 
    because of hairballs) and just told my fiancee' to watch his step.    
    WELL, WHEN I TURNED ON THE LIGHT THERE IT WAS - A LITTLE (dead)
    GREY MOUSE.........!    As I jumped back on the bed and waited 
    for Cliff to dispose of it, both cats were standing at the door to 
    the room looking very pleased with themselves.  It just then occured 
    to me that all the ruckus earlier was due to this little mousy.
    
    Isn't it strange how cats (well, mine anyway) don't bother to eat
    these little mousies - this mouse didn't so much as have a dent
    or wisker out of place.  Ebony & Ivory simply 'played with it to
    death'.
    
                           

    My two didn't catch mice until TC showed them how (there are a lot
    of other things I have to be "grateful" to TC for).
    
    

    First encounter was when the three of them caught a mouse and spread
    it up the hall (I found it on my way out to work).
    
    

    Second encounter was when we were decorating a room for several
    months and had lumber stored in the dining room.. Big bluebottles
    and a funny smell made me move the lumber.  I won't tell you what
    I found since at some point you have to eat.
    
    

    Third, and final, encounter was when I was woken at 6:00am on a
    Sunday (insult to injury) by something screaming downstairs.  I
    got down and found TC (at last! - the cause of all the trouble)
    with a mouse.  TC at some point has had to feed himself before he
    moved into a warm home with food on demand - hence his hunting while
    I & T never had to bother.  I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck,
    he dropped the mouse and as a reflex action I caught it - dumb thing
    to do - mouse bit me and I swore.  Ran for the backdoor and put
    mouse outside.  Closed catdoor to give mouse time to escape.  Mouse
    immediately dived down drain (mouse more dumb than me).  Went back
    in a real fury and told TC, Isis and Tarot (innocent bystanders?)
    exactly what I thought of them at top of my voice.  Spent rest of
    week wondering if I was going to develop tetanus (too cowardly to
    get injection as well as too dumb to realise mouse would bite).
    
    Temper not improved by husband standing in doorway laughing too
    hard to speak!
    
    Kate

re: dreading tetanus

Be very thankful you live in the U.K.  If that had happened here in the
States, you'd've been risking rabies! 

Ray

    Ray, I know.
    
    However I don't see we'll be any better off once the Channel Tunnel
    is built.
    
    One of my main reasons for wishing it wouldn't happen.
    
    Kate