so i have lived in the same apartment since 1980, and have never seen a mouse. roaches, yes, but mice… no.
last night my roomate’s cat caught a mouse. he was running around with the thing in his mouth, and then he dropped it, and let it get away!!!
my cat is 17 years old and well past his prime, so it’s hard to blame him for not seeing or killing the mouse, but my roomate’s cat is still young and able-bodied.
the damn thing showed itself again today, and the cats were clueless. it’s like a tom & jerry cartoon, only i’m actually stuck with a mouse in the apartment.
i think we shouldn’t feed either cat until they kill it, but my wife and roomate are softies.
glue traps would just catch the cats. i hope my roomate’s cat finishes the damn thing off!
the worst part is that i always assumed that the mere presence of a cat would keep the mice away. guess i was wrong.
I actually have trouble picturing how a person who keeps cats would object to having a single mouse. Maybe if it was enough mice that it was an obstruction, but one mouse? They walk around, minding their own business, acting annoyed when you get close to them and occassionally steal food off the floor. All you really have is another cat that you’re not required to take care of.
we had a mouse infestation (we went away on vacation, 2 weeks later and our house was the mice equivalent of Lord Of The Flies), and I tried the humane way. My cat tried the feline way. She won.
Paw, claw & tooth beats humane traps any day.
In the end, we got deadly traps. Snappy snappy flat mouse.
The cat was disgusted at my lack of sportmanship.
The only reason I’d ever consider owning a cat is if I had a serious vermin infestation. Otherwise, a cat is pretty much useless in all ways. Dogs are the way to go. If your cat isn’t doing the job consider getting a terrier. It’s a step in the right direction.
If you really want to fix the problem buy yourself a working line jack russell terrier. They will kill damn near everything that they see and are ridiculously persistent about it. I have a jack russell mix and she kills cockroaches, mice, lizards, snakes, bugs, and pretty much anything else she finds in or near the house. She has also climbed up trees to go after squirrels.
The problem with rat poison is that there is always the chance of accidentally poison the cats. A ferret with a nack for rodents would do the trick, BUT, you have to raise it and feed it rodents for it to really develop the appetite.
Back in the old country, we semi-domesticated one of these carnivorous motherfuckers:
[spoiler]Phear the Pizote!!!
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More mellow and less mischivoius than a racoon, that bad boy would eat/hunt/kill anything that crossed its path. But then, it licked a frog and died
I recently talked my neighbor, who was complaining about mice, into getting a kitten because I was sharing our own young cat’s exploits with him. Our little cat (sweet pea) is less than a year old and has 11 kills to her credit - all mice so far. She almost bagged her first squirrel the other day…
I keep a bell on her collar when she goes outside though, because I really don’t want to see her kill any birds.
Mice are filthy rodents and there is nothing cute about them. I also hate squirrels now that I am a homeowner and see the damage they cause. Little fuckers also ruined my vegetable garden this year…
I have a cat at home and he has a great time chasing and killing things. We live on a block (vineyard) so they have plenty of mice and other things at thier disposal. We have to bells on him though otherwise he would kill even more native birds and lizards and things than he manages to already.
Ming we also used to have a cat that never chased anything (except laser light cos they freaked her out) she was more of a house cat than anything i never saw her even contemplate chasing and killing anything live.
Another thing about poison, it’s not an instant kill. The mouse can ingest it and if the cat actually does kill it the cat will ingest some poison. Also if the mouse dies, the cat might eat it then and ingest poison that way.
^^ true that. Mouse trap in out of the way places- like under the cupbord or washing machine where kids and cats cant get them- are the way to go i think.
My sister had a huge rat in her house once, the size of a kitten, the freakiest thing i’ve ever seen. They used poisen for that (they have no cat), took the thing like a day or two to die. Fucking huge it was- well i thought so- my rat contact has been severly limited, thankfully.
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