Conference misery::feline

    
    Sounds like you have a pet door and the cats brings everything in.
    I wonder if you can show the cats the remains and put the remains 
    and the cats outside, like telling the cats that dead animals belong
    outside, you may try a spray bottle with it. Maybe they'll get the
    hint not to bring the stuff in anymore after a few squirks of water.
    When you see them in the act, chase them away from the house.
    
    I have the same problem too, my basement has good selection of
    items for a voodoo practitioner every summer. I haven't bothered to
    stop them since my husband cleans up the mess. In all fairness, I do
    the litterboxes, year round!
    
    Good luck.
    
    
    Eva
    
    

    But your cats are bringing you 'presents'.  You can't reprimand them
    for that...I do know what a major pain it is, tho!
    
    I have no solution, but they are presents for you and the cats may
    become upset with the rejection of these gifts.  I used to go outside
    and praise my cat and thanking her.  As soon as she left, I took the
    'present' and immediately disposed of it, but even after she would seek
    the praise.  Finally, when she grew older, she stopped hunting or, what
    is more the likely result, she became too slow for her prey. ;)
    
    Sandra

    Me too....I don't mind the presents, but why are they eating them
    now when they didn't before?  Are they getting enough to eat before
    they go out?  Maybe that would stop them munching on the little
    critters.
    
    Sue 

    
    I guess, since we are not eating the presents, the cats don't
    want to see them wasted ;-). Raw meat tastes much better than
    any cat chow to them! That's their natural food!
    
    
    Eva

    Don't you hate when they bring it in and it's still alive, then
    they chase it around your kitchen floor?!
    
    Sue

    I saw my big cat mess around with a field mouse.  By the time I caught
    him, it was too late for the mouse.  He didn't actually "EAT" the
    remains, just sort of chewed on them and left small parts all over. He
    did preserve the head for a while, carrying it around with him for the
    day. Guess he was considering mounting it and hanging it in the den : )
    I suppose to a cat it seems pretty odd for humans to throw all those
    perfectly good chicken wing bones in the trash, when they could leave
    them in strategic places (night stand, bathroom cabinet) for use at a
    later time : )
    Yuck, I'm grossing myself out!  
    Sarah

    actually, the cat doesn't just think that they are bringing you a
    present; they think that they are contributing to the family food pot
    (sort of like feeding their "young", i.e., those family members that
    can't hunt for themselves). So please, don't repremand kitty for
    doing this. The cat is paying you a very high complement.
    
    As for the cat eating the rodent, mice are the perfectly
    balanced/complete food for a cat (except for the germs that they may be
    hosting).
    
    Deb

    To sort of go off the subject, my Daisy eats any spider or fly 
    she can catch.  And she is good - I've seen her swat a fly down
    out of mid-air!!  (If there's a dead one on the window-sill she 
    won't touch it, though.  Go figure.)
    
    What could she possibly find appetizing about eating bugs?
    
    Sue

    .8
    
    Oh my, I thought my cat was the only cat that eats spiders and flys. 
    Yes, i too saw my Harley stalk, hunt and kill a fly. I must say, I was 
    a bit proud to see her actually catch it. I was a bit disgusted that
    she ate it, but she does have a ball with the spiders...especially the 
    daddy long legs. Yech!!!
    michelle
    

    ...and now it's spring time and besides a lot of mice she brings me in
    a lot of small birds dead or alive... I don't know how to supress this.
    
    Ilona
    

    
    I guess we need to keep in mind that there are still humans
    living on this planet who eat bugs for protein. Dried water
    beetles are a delicacy in parts of Chinese, so are some
    catepillars! 
    
    
    
    Eva

    This sounds like something that my parents are going
    through lately..
    
    They recently moved to a very old house with their two
    indoor-only cats.  And they still have the cats bringing
    them presents!  
    
    At first they saw them toying with the mice--letting them
    go and then catching them throughout the day...and three
    times they've been woken up in the middle of the night
    to a game of "cat and mouse" taking place right on their bed!
    
    Now they love Molly and Dulcie to death..but I think this was
    a little much for my mother..they had to shut the cats out for
    a few nights..
    
    Now they are finding mouse heads--no bodies--placed strategically
    around the house.  Guess the traps that they have set can not 
    compete with the real thing!
    
    Alicia

    My cellar has fieldstone walls and little critters do get in once in a
    while.  One memorable occasion was a few months back, when I got home
    Tigger did not meet me at the door as usual.  I found him in the
    cellar.  All of a sudden this "thing", which turned out to be a
    chipmunk, rushed across the floor with Tigger after him, and me after
    Tigger.  Must have been a sight to behold with the three of us dashing
    around the cellar after each other!!  Finally, the poor chipmunk rushed
    over to what he must have thought was a nice dark hidey-hole, but in
    reality was the hole where our sump pump is.  Ufortunately, there was
    about four inches of water in there at the time.  I grabbed Tigger and
    ran upstairs and locked him on the front porch.  Ran back down cellar
    and got a narrow board, stuck it underneath the chipmunk and lifted him
    out.  Poor thing looked like a drowned rat.  I kept talking to him
    ("Now you stay right there and I'll take you outside", etc.) and he
    just kept looking at me and let me take him upstairs, through the
    kitchen and onto the porch.  We have a Dutch door to the outside in the
    kitchen so I closed the bottom a watched him out the top of the door. 
    He just stayed there looking at me.  I finally said "You'd better go
    home and dry off before you catch a cold" and he sort of "shrugged" and
    left.  When I let Tigger in he was less than pleased that I had taken
    away his fun toy.  Anyway, I decided to shut the kitchen door to the
    cellar at night lest he bring me a little gifty in the middle of the
    night.  Haven't seen any chipmunks or mice in the last few weeks, so I
    guess either Tigger depleted the population, or they finally learned
    that my cellar is not a good place to hang out.
    
    Marilyn
    Tigger's servant

    Well my mouse story goes like this....  You see with many cats
    I'm always playing "try to save the mouse before the cats get them".
    
    One beautiful day last year I noticed 6 of my cats trying to get
    a mouse.   I then ran outside to try and save him...and as I
    got the mouse away from one cat another cat would grab him.  So
    I then decided to bring the cats indoor one by one...which was
    a real effort in trying to catch them and keep my eye on the mouse.
    Well after collecting 4 of the cats I then proceed to pick up
    this baby mouse and my goal was to bring him to the edge of the
    woods and set him free.   As I'm carefully carrying this little
    baby mouse he got a hold of my finger and bit very hard.   Well..
    of course my reaction was to scream and automatically flung my
    finger which caused the mouse to go crashing to the ground and
    the fall killed it instantly.   Here I am trying to save him...
    and I killed him myself! (my heart was broke...)
    
    Sandy

    
    
    	I can see me doing the same exact thing Sandy.  I'd
    	be devastated afterwards!
    
    	My non-animal friends wouldn't understand why I would care
    	so much about a little field mouse....
    

	My cat calendar this year says that when your kitty brings you a
dead animal, he/she is trying to teach YOU how to hunt and that next time
it is YOUR turn to bring the feast.  How on earth could you discourage this
"honor?"  They have no idea they are disgusting us; they think they are 
teaching us survival.  That instinct would be tough to break without breaking 
them.

			SQ

    When I had a family of new-born mice in the house last fall, Melody the
    coon kitten caught them all one by one and brought them to her human
    slave one at a time, alive, feeling very obviously proud of herself.  I
    put the critters (small ones and momma - not sure what became of daddy
    mouse) out in the woods, and I haven't seen or heard any signs of any
    since then so I guess she found all of the "live toys".  You never saw
    such a PROUD kitten!  I think she was showing off to old JFCL, who at
    age 17 mostly sleeps, and doesn't get too interested in toys these
    days, living or otherwise, unless they are catnip-scented.  JFCL used
    to be a great catcher of flies and spiders in her younger days.
    
    /Charlotte

    When I was younger...ahem...My kitty Freckles was a good natured slob,
    very lovey and sweet and she was basically an indoor cat, but would
    venture outdoors for a bit of fresh air and exercise.  I was sitting
    outside just watching her and she had found a little field mouse and
    they were chasing and running, very comical.  Freckles would run after
    the mouse, the mouse would play dead then as Freckles would sniff it,
    the mouse would jump up and chase the cat.  It was beyond funny.  After
    awhile of this, they would both stop and take a rest, say their
    good-byes and go their seperate ways.  The funny part was, the next
    day, almost like they made the arrangements, Freckles would scratch to
    go out and lo and behold, little mouse was right there waiting for her!
    
    Sandra

    You were bit?  I'd be afraid of catching something.  But thats me. 
    Miss worry wort.
    
    
    dlh

	Last week I found a mouse head on my dining room rug, what a joy.
In the past I have had a live snake brought in the kitchen, a live baby bird 
brought in, and once a live chipmunk.  I knew the chipmunk was under the micro-
wave cart, because Buki wouldn't budge from there.  I put a little tin with some
water and a bit of peanut butter out for it.  The next morning we were leaving 
to go camping, but not before I got that chipmunk out alive!  I closed all the
bedroom doors, and the cellar door.  Then we chased the chipmunk out from under
the cart with a broom handle.  He ran in back of the fridge, along the wall,
behind the piano and into the front door, which we hadn't thought to open...
we were going to catch him in a bag and put him outside.  Yeah, right!
Next we stuffed towels around the fridge and piano, opened the front storm
door and repeated the chasing action...it was a success, the little fella 
scooted out the door and then we very merrily took off to go camping!!

Laura

    I realize this is a cat file, but the last one reminded me of a
    chipmunk story : )
    We had a cat and a dog (a big mixed-breed cat, and a labrador retriever
    dog).  The dog seemed inordinately hungry every day for about 1 week. 
    We couldn't figure it out.  One day I opened the lower drawer of our
    electric stove (we stored odds and ends in there, nothing we needed
    regularly) and found 3 aluminum pile plates FULL of dog food!  The
    mystery of why the dog was hungry was solved, but who put all that food
    in there?  Then two days later I saw my cat open his eyes and look at
    something (this was unusual - he never did anything but sleep as far as
    I could tell).  I followed his gaze and saw a chipmunk loading up on
    dog food, then high-tail it under the kickboard of the cabinets.
    Apparently he had himself an intricte maze of dead space beneath the
    cabinets and behind the appliances.  I tried to interest the dog and
    the cat into chasing the little thing out the door, but I ended up
    doing it myself.
    Mind you, when the dog and cat were outside they were major-league
    chipmunk hunters.  But I guess union rules prohibit chasing of rodents
    in the living quarters : )
    Sarah

WRT earning their keep with fresh mice,

Hey, would -you- want to feel you were a parasite?  I expect not, so you'd
try to contribute.

My two cats don't have the ability to contribute, though the male has been
known to catch things.  Unfortunately, his mother never showed him how to
kill what he catches, so it doesn't matter how I encourage him, as he doesn't
know what to do.  I found this out the hard way, when he brought a female
sparrow home one day.  The bird just kept trying to crawl away to die, and
I insisted that Guz finish what he started.  But he didn't know how.

I brought the bird to the vet, who finished it off.

  The following is from yesterday's sheet on my kitty calendar:

"A gentlemen had a favorite cat whom he taught to sit at the dinner-table....
He was in the habit of putting any scraps he left on the cat's plate.  One
day puss...appeared with two mice, one of which he placed on his master's
plate, the other on his own."

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)

				SQ

    Ha!  I was reading the earlier replies to this, and I hae a little
    storty to relate about Bear... 
    
    Now Bear here, is an indoor cat...But he sits at the sliding door and
    goes nutz when the bird come to the deck to munch on the treats we
    throw out for them...
    
    Well, I've decided Bear isn't too bright. I came home last night to
    find feathers EVERYWHERE - like all over the living room, sofa,etc...
    Seems he found the feather duster I use in my studio - that he dragged
    up the stairs and played with all afternoon.
    
    Seems to me that Bear thought my feather duster was some bird, and 
    he proceeded to kill it for us. :-)
    
                                    

    This is really funny. I am not very much awake, but this gave me a jolt of
    laughing. Bear went for the next best thing. Thanks
    Linda                           

    
    I have one of those "feather flyers", a feather gizmo on a string at
    the end of a wand, that makes a fairly convincing flying bird.  Madame
    Blueberry (whom my SO Sandy tactlessly describes as "matronly", and
    whom I have (mistakenly, it turns out) described as "not likely to be
    able to survive on her hunting skills"), now begs at every opportunity
    that I take it out and make it fly for her so she can chase it and swat
    it out of the air.  The gadget is "hidden" in a cardboard tube, but
    Blueberry knows exactly where it is and she sits beside it, meowing
    plaintively.  I have caught her directing a conspiracy of all the
    youngsters (i.e., everybody but Merlin) to extract the tube from its
    barricaded location (a lesson they quickly taught me), and then ferret
    the feather thingy from the tube.  She's quite insistent about getting
    at least one session a day with this toy.
    
    Periodically I come across fossil evidence of the cats' love for
    feathers, sometimes in the strangest places...
    
    len.
     

    
    	Len - Max and Augie do this too, I keep mine on top of the fridge.
    	If I even look at the top of the fridge, they go bananas and cry
    	at me until I [of course] give in. They also like me to blow
    	bubbles for them - the chase and pop every last one. :)
    
    	Sherry
    

    Our feather flyer lives on the shelf in the coat closet.  It's hard to
    imagine a cat who *wouldn't* go bonkers over one!  We have lots of 
    pictures of our boys' spectacular 4' high leaps in ferocious pursuit.  
    They'll continue trying to kill it until they're so tuckered out that 
    they have to lie on the kitchen floor--but they'll still paw at it 
    from that position!
    
    Second favorite toy for Skrufy: pillows (tiny kitty-sized ones, no
    matter what they're filled with) for pillow-hockey on the kitchen
    floor.  Second fave for Veto: cardboard boxes and/or rolls of paper
    towels, for SHREDDING by teeth and claws (he's a reincarnated dog).
    
    Leslie                                                             

RE: .28

>        floor.  Second fave for Veto: cardboard boxes and/or rolls of paper
>    towels, for SHREDDING by teeth and claws (he's a reincarnated dog).
    
    Leslie,

I'm soooo glad to hear about Veto; we thought we were the only ones who had 
paper-shredding kitties.  We can't leave toilet paper on the roller because 
Kelly will rip gouges out of it, and last night the basket on the kitchen 
table that holds paper napkins was attacked by Ronnie and Trudy (shredded 
paper everywhere).  A few years ago, our daughter couldn't get her teacher 
to believe that the cat ate her homework (I'm a witness; Sophie did) because 
"only dogs do that!!!"  Yeah right - that teacher never had an insane kitty!
Sophie will also shred newspaper if she thinks you are spending too much time
reading it and not petting her.  So far, Tatto is the only one who hasn't 
destroyed a paper product, but I'm betting she'll learn from the other four!

			SQ

    
    re paper shredding - Floyd loves to tear up magazines and burrow under
    the pieces.  A newspaper will also work nicely.
    
    Luckily none of my crew seem interested in toilet paper rolls.
    
    Here's a roundup of everbody's absolutely all time favorite toys:
    
    All: feather flyer, although only Blueberry begs for it
         mylar streamers on plastic wand, although only Robin begs for it
    
    Robin and Floyd: small fur mousies; Robin often asks me to retrieve one
    from places she's tossed it into that she can't reach.  Standard
    procedure is to remove the tail as rapidly as possible.  Large mousies
    (rats?) are not interesting.
    
    Blueberry - pencils (and sometimes pens)
    
    Floyd: enormous red rubber bands
           magazines and newspapers
           fomecor and other matting scraps
    
    Rocky doesn't seem to have any unique favorites, and Merlin is too
    senior to play.  Rocky will attack any comb used to attempt to groom
    him.
    
    Rocky and Floyd are not above using their sisters as "play prey".
    
    Floyd and Robin are both "carriers"; they will carry their favorite
    toys all over, often depositing them near (if not in) their food and
    drink bowls.
    
    len.
    
    
    
    
    

Does this cat also show interest in ceder blocks?

    Careful with those rubber bands, in case they might be swallowed.
    

    
    re two previous:
    
    She has expressed interest in a bag of cedar chips hanging in the
    closet; the connection never registered until now.
    
    Floyd's shown no interest in eating the rubber bands; they're awfully
    big (~15" in circumference, 3/8" wide), and he seems content to just
    carry them around (like snakes).  He especially likes it when I shoot
    them across the room for him.
    
    len.
    
    

    
    	Plastic straws, preferably from MacDonald's.  They both know
    	when I'm unwrapping one.  Once they're chewed a bit, they're
    	no good.  Gotta have a new one.  The way they hold them in
    	their paws and that ridiculous face when they chew 'em is
    	a riot!
    
    	Love those free straw dispensers...
    
    	Tom
    

    My Sassy goes complete wacko over straws.  Her favorites are from
    Mcd's; if I get a shake I have to fight her off so I can get my drink
    before she takes the straw.  Then we play fetch (aka "Straws") until I
    am out of my mind and have to hide the straw someplace where she cannot
    find it.  She still has managed to get it and bring it into bed in the
    middle of the night, where I refuse to give in, but she tosses it in
    the air and attacks the straw until I have to lock her out of the
    room so that I can get some sleep. 
                                     

    Valentina likes straws.  She holds one end in her mouth and tries to
    grab the other end.  Alas, her legs are too short, and she ends up
    pushing/chasing the straw across the room.

Hello cat lovers,

Lately I've been thinking about getting a cat again.  It would be an
indoor cat.  

My house backs up to a woods area, and I've been catching a mouse or
two in my house every few months.

Do you think a cat in the house would scare the mice from entering?  Or
is it more likely that the cat would actually catch the mice and eat
them or deposit them on my bed pillow?

I'm hoping that maybe the mice would smell the scent of a cat and
keep away.  

What do you all think?

Ginny

    
    
    Ginny,  I'm afraid that most likely the cat will find the mice 
            sometimes eat them, sometimes not. It would be likely 
            that on occassion you might find little heads or tails
            hanging around too.  The cat can also get worms and 
            such from the mice. 
    
    Shaw

    In my opinion, mice haven't a clue about who lives in a house, be it
    humans, cats, dogs, or other mice.  If its warm, sheltered, and
    provides food, it's a Good Place.  
    
    By getting a cat you will likely find that you will have *lots* more
    than one or two dead mice every few months.  The cat will likely find
    and destroy a large population of mie in your house relatively quickly,
    then keep the population at very low levels from then on.  This is what
    happened to us when we adopted our stray, Spunky.  He's a 4-legged
    rodent terminator, and he's very, very good at what he does.  Too good,
    actually.  I hate it when he brings me chipmunks and baby mice (one
    after another) and I do my best to extract said prey from his grasp
    before he kills them, but its the choice I made when I got a cat.
    
    I do have to admit though that *not* finding my barn boots full of
    sunflower seeds is a nice thing.
    
    Dana

    Not only that, the cat may not have been trained by its mother to hunt
    *efficiently*, so you could end up with a kitty who loves *watching*
    those mousies but hasn't a clue what to do with them/how to kill them.
    
    My "boys" racked up one confirmed kill and several non-lethal
    skirmishes before they (the boys) were rendered inefficient (removed
    front claws).  Now I perform the mouse-icide but the boys let me know
    when to set the traps: they stare intently at the dishwasher as if it
    were some kind of kitty video invisible to humans.  Apparently there
    is a main-drag mouse thoroughfare behind the DW, so I know it's time to
    set my line of traps :-(
    
    Leslie

Re .39:

Not all cats are that good.  She might have to "interview" a few before she
finds the right one.  "Interview" a cat for the position of mouser by going
to the pound and asking for one.  Take it home and see how it does.  If it
doesn't know how to hunt, in theory she could bring it back to the pound and
get another one, but I bet she won't unless she is really cold hearted.
<grin>

 You could always take two and double your chances (and fun) of getting a
good mouser.

			SQ

    I hate to brag, but the Honorable Colonel Sebastian Moran, DROFFC,
    caught his second mouse yesterday. You may recall that it was his
    catching of the first mouse a few years ago that earned him his DROFFC.
    (Distinguished and Royal Order of Felines, First Class, with Mouse
    Cluster). For those of you who are new to the file, The Colonel is a
    wobbly kitty. He can take at best two steps without falling over. The
    vet says it was due to his mother having had distemper when he was
    born.  So to catch a mouse takes him considerable effort and skill. 
    (and a whole bunch of luck, but don't tell him I said so)
    
    Naturally, I praised him extensively for his mighty feat and let him
    out to strut around the yard. I passed the window later in time to see
    him take off after a rabbit. Since the rabbit was out in the open and
    The Colonel was inside the fenced in yard, the bunny escaped unscathed.
    Considering it was nearly as big as The Colonel, I was still impressed.
    I've often seen him stalking birds and making leaps at crows. He really
    has the instinct to hunt. Oddly, he has never grasped the significance
    of the six foot tall chain link fence and its relationship to his not
    being able to reach the creatures. Still, it is interesting to watch
    him.

    I've got two cats, one older and one reasonably young.  They couldn't
    catch a mouse unless said rodent ran right up to them within swatting
    distance.  Heaven forbid they might actually have to MOVE to catch
    something...  
    Both were strays, but I suspect the only hunting they did while they
    were on their own was hunting for the food bowls the kind souls in my
    neighborhood leave out for them : )
    Sarah

    It's interesting.  Someone a few notes back said that a kitten would
    have to have it's mother teach it how to be a mouser.  
    
    I have a grey tabby that I found at 2 days old.  I nursed her for weeks
    and she is now over a year old.  She is a rodent terminator.  
    
    I wonder how true that statement is.  I think some just naturally know
    what to do.
    
    Mark
    
    
    

    
    I think cats are wired to mouse, and Mom just encourages them, bringing
    practice prey home, maybe offering a few tips from hard won experience
    (Can you say "anthropomorphize"?  See, I knew you could!).  Seriously,
    cats seem to be all over the map with respect to their intelligence and
    other skills, and some of them are more equal than others; some make a
    rock look smart.
    
    len.
    

    re .45, Ack!  I was the person who passed along the misinformation
    which your anecdote so completely refutes!  I think I got this notion
    from "Caressing the Tiger" (a National Geographic video?), broadcast a
    couple-few years back.
    
    Leslie