Every morning I get up and hide the mice

[ZenLefty]

I find hiding spots for them in the living room somewhere. On the windowsill, or partially under the sofa with their whiskers still visible. Not too well hidden, but they can't be in the same spot twice.

Later in the day, our fat cat Elwood will find them. He won't look for them or play with them if he knows someone is watching. If a human is in the room, it spoils the hunt. Once he's convinced that he's completely alone, he pounces! He will bat it around for a little while, then pick it up with his teeth, and howl at the top of his lungs while he carries it to the kitchen. When he does this, I must go and tell him what a good mouser he is, stroke his fur and give him a kitty treat.

Sometimes, I come home to find two mice on the rug in the kitchen. And then Elwood will come running, demanding his kitty treat.

Some people think I've got him pretty well trained, but I think it's the other way around.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Enabler!

:D

He's got you, um, p****-whipped! :P

[ZenLefty]

2. Yeah, I'm a slave to his feline bidding

And I'm almost out of kitty treats. :o

[I AM SPARTACUS]

12. perhaps...more a "partner in Elwood's alternate reality"...

[Philostopher]

3. I have a cat ...

Who stalks and 'kills' the little cotton ropes from around the waist of the Frangelico bottles. She comes prancing into the room to announce her kill, then drops it near one of us. Her 'kill meow' is creepy -- it'll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

On the negative side, now that we have a dog, he chews her 'toys' up when he finds them.

On the positive side, that means we have to come up with more excuses to drink Frangelico.

[ZenLefty]

5. The kill meow is creepy, indeed

But, in my case, Elwood is so fat, the 'kill meow' is more ludicrous than anything. I don't think he could catch a real mouse if he tried.

[TXlib]

8. Mmmmm... Frangelico!

Nectar of the Gods!

[Divernan]

4. I'm running a mouser camp - Elwood would love it!

Since my two cats have died (old age) and my work/travel schedule has not permitted me to adopt some new ones, the damn field mice, voles and chipmunks have taken over my yard and keep sneaking in under the garage door into the basement. What I need are a couple of kick ass mousers for a few weeks. So drop Elwood off in Pennsylvania for his summer vacation - I promise him lots of live action. I even have a groundhog and a red shouldered hawk if he's ready for big game.

[ZenLefty]

6. He's only successful with the fake mice

Real mice actually run, or make an effort to evade. Elwood's, well, let's just say he's a "whole lotta cat". He's not as agile as he used to be. :D

[Rhiannon12866]

7. Try reduced-fat cat food

It can't be healthy for him to be so overweight. You obviously love him, so you want him to be around as long as possible. I'd ask his vet if he/she thinks he's overweight and what you should feed him.

I shouldn't talk. My little half-feral girl is running around in here as I write this. She has been hiding in her little kitty house for most of the day, but, at night, comes out to eat and play with her toys. She won't come out unless we are alone. She prefers the toys that squeak. I rescued her from the outside. She had been abandoned and I fed her for five months before finally finally catching her using a ``have a heart'' trap. The weather was getting really cold and I was a wreck. When I brought her, in the trap, to the vet, I asked if this cat was male or female. They said it was either a male or a female that I had been feeding awfully well. Oops! Only I could capture a cat from the wild and she would be overweight!:-)

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Elwood sounds like a cat after my own heart

My little girl is 13, and prefers her pink, plush toy mouse that rattles. That's her favorite toy. I hate to think what she had to do to survive when she was on her own. She was quite agile when I observed her outdoors and can still move pretty fast, but deserves to be taken care of in her old age. Everyday I'm grateful that I was able to bring her in and she is finally safe.

As for mice, I had a pet mouse I loved, years ago. He was cute, friendly, and loved to run in his little wheel. He especially liked fresh melon and blueberries. His name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Frank for short. I just cannot think of anyone eating him.;(

[ZenLefty]

14. Elwood is pretty slow outside

He spends about 75% of his life parked at the back door. Watching for squirrels or pidgeons, or other neighborhood cats, through the transparency of the safety glass on our security door. (There's now a bird bath outside, which he thinks was put there for his personal amusement, and draws finches and robins and woodpeckers from the whole neighborhood, all to his delight).

Occasionally, about once a month or so, he will dart out while no one is looking, to go adventuring in the wild. He makes it all of two meters before someone nabs him and takes him back in. He's no spring chicken anymore, he's just 25 pounds of cantankerous fur and bones. I doubt he has the celerity required to catch anything faster than a sleeping brick.

Fake mice are about the only things he'll paint on the side of his fuselage anymore. ;-)

[Rhiannon12866]

17. At least he is safe!

I truly feared for my Rhiannon because she was fearless. She would take on anything or anybody and was less than ten pounds and declawed. She was an indoor cat, naturally, but did escape, somehow, one cold January night and scared me to death! Her favorite toy my aunt called the ``kitty torture'' and she claimed no cat could resist it. I believe it is sold commercially as the ``cat dancer.'' It is little rolls of cardboard strung on a piece of taut wire and it springs back and forth of its own volition. Rhiannon would chase me by the hour with this. You barely have to move your hand, and it makes movements irresistible to cats. It costs about $2.50 at pet stores, but I think it's priceless.:D

[noonwitch]

9. I haven't had mice since I got my cat

At my old place, I'd get a couple every fall and have to put traps out. I got Miranda, she killed one and I never saw another one, dead or alive, again. Man, she tortured that mouse she got, too. I had to finish the job, because she was only a couple of months old at the time.
Now, the little 4 pound cat is into stalking my 45 pound dog, and the occasional housefly or centipede. She can beat Katie up! Luckily, Katie likes her, and considers it all playing.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi Zen!

:hi:

[ZenLefty]

15. Hi! Keep yer stick on the ice.

:)

[brokensymmetry]

13. Great story!

*

[ZenLefty]

16. Thanks. It's all true.

Every day is heralded by the howl of Elwood's Kill-Call, where he brings the defeated (fake) mice to the kitchen for his reward. :)