Our 3 cats are not earning their keep.

[3catwoman3]

We found evidence of mice in the basement. Turns out they were living in some old bathroom rugs that were piled up RIGHT NEXT TO WHERE THE CATS SLEEP!

I find this hysterically funny. All 3 are indoor cats. So much for any killer/predator instincts.

[applegrove]

1. I had cats that were duds where mice were concerned too. SUCH a hard

problem to have as there are no good solutions. I would think simply having cats would scare away mice with nobody getting hurt. Thankfully there are none where I live right now. I once had a landlord who suggested humane traps and then putting them in an empty ice cream container in the freezer till they die. I did not do that obviously. I have no answers for you.

[3catwoman3]

3. I am away just now, so my husband is seeing to it.

The pest control guy came and put out some traps, and will be sealing up the access points he found.

Your former landlord's suggestion is horrifying.

[applegrove]

5. Yes. Even the humane traps alone sound horrible. But that was beyond the pail.

[robbob]

16. Humane traps sound horrible?

Not sure I get you. I thought the whole concept of a humane trap was to capture the mouse without causing it any harm. At that point you could take the mouse to a far off field and let it go in the wild. Freezing it alive definitely sounds messed up, it what possible objection could there be to humane traps?

[applegrove]

17. I talked to a hotel maintenance assistant when I worked in a hotel in a port city.

They had lots of mice. He said they would scream and loose bit of themselves when you pulled them off the glue. So I never went near them.

[robbob]

19. I don't think a glue trap is considered a humane trap...

Could be wrong, but I thought a humane trap was a cage with a way in but no way out, so the mouse goes in to get the food and then can’t get out and is caught in a cage. I agree about glue traps; they are awful. I worked in a bakery once where a large rat got caught in a couple glue traps; it was not pretty and did not end well.

[applegrove]

20. This was 14 or 15 years ago. I did not know they had little cages. Anyhow.

No mice now.

[Doreen]

2. Try having a cat who runs in fear

from mice. Yes, I had one.

[lastlib]

25. I had a cat that did "catch and release"....

We had cattle and kept some feed in a metal barrel. A mouse got into it and couldn't get out. I put my cat in the barrel with it--she caught the mouse, jumped out of the barrel with it, turned it loose, and didn't bother to pursue it.

A true humanitarian ("mouse-atarian"?)!

[Doreen]

32. Aww, how sweet.

Definitely a Democrat cat.

A Democat.

[pstokely]

4. some cats bring in mice and just let them go with they get bored torturing them

how many jobs have your fat cats created?

[3catwoman3]

6. A long-departed cat once brought a...

...live and uninjured baby owl into our on-base house when my husband was stationed at K.I. Sawyer in the UP of Michingan. I had a hell of a time catching it.

[Merlot]

7. I've caught a humming bird, a sparrow, and a couple mice

I think my cat brings them in just to see me run around, she thinkis I enjoy hunting as much as she does.

Oh, and a few lizards too.

[Laffy Kat]

11. I had an indoor/outdoor kitteh that brought snakes into the house via the doggie dog.

We had loads of garter snakes in our back yard and we liked having them there. Darn cat didn't even eat the snakes, just let them go inside. Sadly, I accidentally stepped on one in the kitchen and killed it; I felt terrible.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. One of my cats once caught a bat that had gotten into the house somehow.

He was running all over the place with the squeaking, flapping, but apparently unharmed bat in his mouth, and I was chasing him to get the bat away from him. Finally, I was able to corner him under a coffee table. I poked at him until he dropped the bat, which I quickly scooped into a shoe box and put outside. He hissed at me when I took the bat from him. He was never a hissy cat but he was really irritated when I took his prize away; he had caught it by leaping into the air and swatting it down in mid-flight, and he was awfully damned proud of himself.

[3catwoman3]

10. "...and he was awfully damned proud of himself."

As he should have been - sounds quite athletic.

[TexasTowelie]

9. You found their secret stash.

They were keeping them hidden in case you forgot to feed them one night.

[Kurt V.]

27. ha! Your on to them.

[akraven]

12. Mine runs from shrews and they are LITTLE! Very!!

But we still crack up! We try hard to laugh behind her back - payback is NO fun!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I had a cat who would catch a mouse, bring it to me,

then release it obviously expecting me to complete the kill. Oh, yes, and the occasional baby rabbit.

Some years back I had a cat that was a good hunter. Then the cat went to, as I like to put it, that great litterbox in the sky. My husband didn't want to get another cat, and I was fine with that. Until, after about 8 months or so, I was hearing and then seeing mice in the house. I said, "We need another cat."

So I went to the shelter, brought home a wonderful cat who did hunt, did nail mice and as I said, the occasional baby rabbit. But so far as I could tell she never actually killed the prey, and I'd let them go outside. After a while no more mice showed up in the house, and that was good enough for me.

Right now I am without feline roommates, but someday I'll have them again.

[ProudLib72]

14. Time to trade them in on some certified mousers!

Just kidding!

[jrellis]

15. i had a cat

i used to go camping with my cat in utah. more than once she came back to my tent and threw up a mouse. it was sort of disgusting, but i think she just wanted to bring it back. she was the boss. i had to carry her in a sling to every camp site, and wherever i sat her down, that was our meeting place for the rest of the trip.

at home, she did keep out all the mice and i never saw one until she left. i didn't get another cat, i could not watch one die again. that may have been the worst day of my life

[3catwoman3]

18. One of our vets once told me that we bring animals into...

...our lives and hearts, knowing that we will most likely outlive them, but we do it anyway, because our lives are that much richer for them being part of it.

It is awful when they leave us.

[MissB]

21. I just got a gift. A live gift.

I admit to not being terribly thrilled. I now have a mouse trap set in our closet. At least I know it can’t get back out.

[MissB]

22. Update: somehow the mouse escaped

I know this because:

- the cat scattered across the hardwood floor, obviously chasing something. I was asleep. Was.

- the cat became very interested in the bedding at the end of the bed, especially underneath the bed. She kept batting at the blanket.

- when I lifted up the end of the mattress, I saw a FUCKING tail. Glad I brought the salad tongs and a jar up earlier. Mouse has been deported from the house. Cat still wanders aimlessly.

[mnhtnbb]

23. Some time after we lost our kitty when we moved

to Nebraska in 1994, I heard the sound of mice in the kitchen walls in the big old house we had bought. It was so old it had a working boiler in the basement to put out hot water heat. The boiler room was under the kitchen. I figured the mice were somehow getting in there for the warmth.

So I saw an ad in the newspaper for free kittens. I went to the home of what was a real cat lady. There were cats everywhere! The biggest cat I'd ever seen was curled up sleeping on the seat of a chair and covered the entire seat. He was probably the father of at least one of the kittens I took home. I took a pair of male kittens, one black Tabby and one orange tabby who had been born in 2 separate litters 4 days apart but raised as brothers.

Brought them home and set up their "room," in the boiler room. Within a week the mice moved out.

We named the kitties Mouse and Simba. Mouse got his name because one time when I had gone down to the boiler room to check on their food, water, and scoop the litter box, I didn't see the little black Tabby . All of a sudden there was movement in a dark corner of the room and I screamed because I thought it was a mouse trying to scurry out of sight. My oldest son came running--who was about 9 at the time-- and went back in the corner to look. He came out with the kitty in his arms and said " here's the mouse, mom". That's how Mouse got his name.

Mouse and Simba were devoted to each other. Mouse lived to be 14 and Simba 17. They both were very big cats, eventually growing up to weigh over 20 lbs each.

[MissMillie]

24. Our indoor cat isn't a mouser either

and neither are our 4 pure-bred American Rat Terriers.

And I don't see much point in releasing the mice back into the wild. I saw a story on TV where a couple took the time to do that and before they could get back into their car and get it started, the birds in the field made a buffet out of the mice.

[Faux pas]

26. My cats alway believed

that if a critter is living there, it must belong there.

[happybird]

28. Out of my four only one is interested in mice

We figured Leo would be a hell of a mouser because he was forest kitty when we met him- covered in mats and ticks, living rough in the woods around the farm. But, he is a true Kitty of Leisure now, indoor only and fully retired (and good for him, he deserves it!) He will watch Pooper for a minute as she stalks a mouse, and then roll over and continue his nap.

We didn't have a mouse problem until the past few months. We live in a house that is divided into two apartments, one upstairs and one down. The last upstairs tenants were really gross according to my landlord and his property manager. They've had to renovate the whole top floor, even sand down and re-stain the hardwood floors. They left a ton of stuff up there, too, including bags of trash. I'm surprised we didn't smell anything.

I think the mice must be coming from up there. Judging by Pooper's stake outs, the hotspot is by the old servants' stairs in my kitchen.They are locked, but they lead to the upstairs apt's kitchen. I've been obsessively searching for mouse poop and haven't found a single piece, which makes no sense because Pooper has caught three mice (including one left in her water bowl yesterday). I think the mice must be doing desperate kamikazi runs down to my kitchen ever since the upstairs apt was cleaned out. I'm moving in June so not terribly worried about it.

[MrsMatt]

30. About 10 years ago

had a mouse in the basement. Younger cat was the first located, brought her down to the mouse (which was frozen in fear) to dispatch. She LICKED the damned thing on the head.

Disgusted, we brought the old 18 year old former mouser, who was deaf and blind, put her in front of the mouse. She was confused for a split second, then located the mouse by smell and SNAP, she killed it in one bite.

[3catwoman3]

31. "She LICKED the damned thing on the head."

I am laughing so hard I am crying!