of mice and cats

OK, weird subject, but probably not what you think.

While at the optometrist today, my wife and I stopped by a local pet shop
where we purchased two mice and accessories for rodent keeping in our
apartment. Aside from my umbrage at how the little guys were treated by
the rodent handler (the moron *really* should know better than to handle a
mouse by the tail), we nonetheless have two very tiny additions to our
household that, in retrospect, maybe we shouldn't have purchased from that
store on the grounds that they were being mishandled. But I digress.

Well, for the time being, they're being kept in the bathroom, being warmed
by a space heater. It gets kinda cold in there. But with that in mind,
the important part.

There are occasional stories (and, on The Planet's Funniest Animals, video
clips) of cats and mice peacefully coexisting and somehow violating all
sensibilities as established by a standard food chain. Has anyone here
had such luck without turning such little critters into either neurotic
little basket cases, or lunch for the cats?

--
Dennis Carr - | I may be out of my mind,
http://www.dennis.furtopia.org | But I have more fun that way.
------------------------------------+-------------------------------

Has anyone here
had such luck without turning such little critters into either neurotic
little basket cases, or lunch for the cats?

I do squirrel and opossum rescue. One of my kitties Mimi rescued two baby
squirrels on her own. She brought them inside, cleaned them and tried to nurse
them. She believes they are her ugly kittens. She thinks the same thing of
opossums. She just thinks that opossum babies are her even uglier kittens. I
got another cat Patchy and I wanted him to realize that squirrels and opossums
are kittens and not to be harmed. I took out a tiny hairless eyes closed baby
and showed it to him. I kept petting and calling the baby a kitten. Then this
15 gm "kitten" smacked him upside his head. He ran away screaming like a little
girl kitten. He has stayed way away from all squirrels and opossums since.

I think most of it is their own nature. Are they hunters, nurturers, have they
had kittens... Part of it is how you introduce the mice. You must show them
that the mice are to be treated like kittens, pet them, call the mice nice
names... then hopefully your kitty will get the drift. I'd slowly hold the mice
near the kitty so she can smell them. If her eyes get wide, it may not be a
good idea. Then I'd slowly hold the cat and let the mouse crawl on the kitty.
Make sure the mouse is nice and doesn't bite her. Or you could just keep them
safely apart.

Has anyone here
had such luck without turning such little critters into either neurotic
little basket cases, or lunch for the cats?

I do squirrel and opossum rescue. One of my kitties Mimi rescued two baby
squirrels on her own. She brought them inside, cleaned them and tried to nurse
them. She believes they are her ugly kittens. She thinks the same thing of
opossums. She just thinks that opossum babies are her even uglier kittens. I
got another cat Patchy and I wanted him to realize that squirrels and opossums
are kittens and not to be harmed. I took out a tiny hairless eyes closed baby
and showed it to him. I kept petting and calling the baby a kitten. Then this
15 gm "kitten" smacked him upside his head. He ran away screaming like a little
girl kitten. He has stayed way away from all squirrels and opossums since.

I think most of it is their own nature. Are they hunters, nurturers, have they
had kittens... Part of it is how you introduce the mice. You must show them
that the mice are to be treated like kittens, pet them, call the mice nice
names... then hopefully your kitty will get the drift. I'd slowly hold the mice
near the kitty so she can smell them. If her eyes get wide, it may not be a
good idea. Then I'd slowly hold the cat and let the mouse crawl on the kitty.
Make sure the mouse is nice and doesn't bite her. Or you could just keep them
safely apart.

"Mary" wrote in message
...

I do squirrel and opossum rescue. One of my kitties Mimi rescued two baby
squirrels on her own. She brought them inside, cleaned them and tried to
nurse
them. She believes they are her ugly kittens. She thinks the same thing of
opossums. She just thinks that opossum babies are her even uglier kittens.
I
got another cat Patchy and I wanted him to realize that squirrels and
opossums
are kittens and not to be harmed. I took out a tiny hairless eyes closed
baby
and showed it to him. I kept petting and calling the baby a kitten. Then
this
15 gm "kitten" smacked him upside his head. He ran away screaming like a
little
girl kitten. He has stayed way away from all squirrels and opossums since.


LOL! Poor Patchy--he just didn't know what hit him (literally!).

Does Mimi ever see squirrels or mice, etc. as prey rather than baby kittens,
or do all little wee ones get honourary kitten titles?

rona

--
"Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and they will
**** upon your computer."
--Bruce Graham

"Mary" wrote in message
...

I do squirrel and opossum rescue. One of my kitties Mimi rescued two baby
squirrels on her own. She brought them inside, cleaned them and tried to
nurse
them. She believes they are her ugly kittens. She thinks the same thing of
opossums. She just thinks that opossum babies are her even uglier kittens.
I
got another cat Patchy and I wanted him to realize that squirrels and
opossums
are kittens and not to be harmed. I took out a tiny hairless eyes closed
baby
and showed it to him. I kept petting and calling the baby a kitten. Then
this
15 gm "kitten" smacked him upside his head. He ran away screaming like a
little
girl kitten. He has stayed way away from all squirrels and opossums since.


LOL! Poor Patchy--he just didn't know what hit him (literally!).

Does Mimi ever see squirrels or mice, etc. as prey rather than baby kittens,
or do all little wee ones get honourary kitten titles?

rona

--
"Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and they will
**** upon your computer."
--Bruce Graham

On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 04:56:18 -0400, wrote:

Please don't feed the troll.

I beg your pardon?

Dennis asked this group a legitimate question
about how we might introduce our new pet mice
(who are living happily in a cage in our
bathroom for the moment) to our pet cats so
that they can eventually get along like the
ones that appear sometimes on home video shows.

Even if it doesn't get beyond the cats learning
not to pounce on the cage (something we'd like to
stop before it starts) then at least I won't have
to worry about whether or not we left the bathroom
door open when we go grocery shopping.

So far, I've gone as far as holding each cat in my
arms, showing her the cage, and doing a lot of
how-do-you-do's by way of formally introducing each
mouse (still in the cage) to each cat before sending
the cats back out of the bathroom. Silly? Perhaps,
but at least they know the sound of each other's
name and hopefully one day they'll learn to recognize
the scent of a friend.

On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 04:56:18 -0400, wrote:

Please don't feed the troll.

I beg your pardon?

Dennis asked this group a legitimate question
about how we might introduce our new pet mice
(who are living happily in a cage in our
bathroom for the moment) to our pet cats so
that they can eventually get along like the
ones that appear sometimes on home video shows.

Even if it doesn't get beyond the cats learning
not to pounce on the cage (something we'd like to
stop before it starts) then at least I won't have
to worry about whether or not we left the bathroom
door open when we go grocery shopping.

So far, I've gone as far as holding each cat in my
arms, showing her the cage, and doing a lot of
how-do-you-do's by way of formally introducing each
mouse (still in the cage) to each cat before sending
the cats back out of the bathroom. Silly? Perhaps,
but at least they know the sound of each other's
name and hopefully one day they'll learn to recognize
the scent of a friend.

Aside from my umbrage at how the little guys were treated by
the rodent handler (the moron *really* should know better than to handle a
mouse by the tail), we nonetheless have two very tiny additions to our
household that, in retrospect, maybe we shouldn't have purchased from that
store on the grounds that they were being mishandled. But I digress.

Congratulations on your new pets, and you can feel good about saving two
sensitive creatures from a truly horrifying death (live snake prey). Actually,
sometimes the only way you can nab the little suckers is by the tail (very
close to the base), but tossing them around in any way IS abusive.

There are occasional stories (and, on The Planet's Funniest Animals, video
clips) of cats and mice peacefully coexisting and somehow violating all
sensibilities as established by a standard food chain. Has anyone here
had such luck without turning such little critters into either neurotic
little basket cases, or lunch for the cats?

Dude! Please don't take this chance. In hopes of sparing your meeces the same
trauma, I will offer up my own experience:

I introduced mouse to kitty by holding mouse and letting kitty sniff. This
went well enough, so of course, I got cocky. I let mouse sniff kitty and soon
they were face to face sniffing away, looking almost affectionate. I bragged
to coworkers, congratulated myself on defeating the powers of nature and
fostering peace between species, and even considered buying a video camera so I
could send proof of my accomplishment to various home video programs.

::: Hangs head in shame :::

Little did I know that my sweet, beautiful, often dim-witted window dressing
was, like all great huntresses, merely biding her time. She was scamming me
the whole time. Every time she sniffed the poor helpless creature, she was
deciding which wine would go best with him.

When she finally made her move, it was so fast and without warning, there was
nothing I could do to prevent it (especially since I had the thing right in her
face like the mother of all dumbasses). So, soon I was pooring peroxide over
the bite wounds, and once they got infected, carting the little bugger off to
the vet. I would, normally, out of pride, omit from this story the endless
snickering I endured from people in the waiting room, the receptionist, and
even the vet himself, but in the interest of conveying the intensity of the
guilt one feels in this situation, I'm willing to put it all out the Yes, I
took a $1.59 feeder mouse to the vet. The price of my iffy redemption: $36.00


The mouse lived, but never liked me much after that.

The moral: Never trust your kitties. I'm sure there are cats in this world
that are indifferent enough to let a mouse crawl around on them, but don't
count on yours being one of them. You can judge the danger by their level of
interest. They aren't looking to make friends with an animal this tiny,
they're thinking up recipes.

On the other hand, they make great entertainment (in cage) for your cats. I
would encourage any cat owner to save a couple from their doom and provide your
kitty with some MouseTV.

I'm not sure what kind of cage you have, but the top must be REALLY secure and
it shouldn't be tippable. I wouldn't trust them with a wire cage. If you have
the plastic kind (which I do), the cats get on top of them, and sometimes tip
them over, which causes the door to fly open and, well, the ending to THAT
story isn't nearly as happy.
You can secure the doors with clear packing tape. Most cages can be cat
proofed and then you can let the cats do whatever they want. Don't be
disturbed if they pounce at the cage--the mice will generally ignore them.
Check out the mice newsgroup for more info --they can be really fun,
intelligent pets.

Aside from my umbrage at how the little guys were treated by
the rodent handler (the moron *really* should know better than to handle a
mouse by the tail), we nonetheless have two very tiny additions to our
household that, in retrospect, maybe we shouldn't have purchased from that
store on the grounds that they were being mishandled. But I digress.

Congratulations on your new pets, and you can feel good about saving two
sensitive creatures from a truly horrifying death (live snake prey). Actually,
sometimes the only way you can nab the little suckers is by the tail (very
close to the base), but tossing them around in any way IS abusive.

There are occasional stories (and, on The Planet's Funniest Animals, video
clips) of cats and mice peacefully coexisting and somehow violating all
sensibilities as established by a standard food chain. Has anyone here
had such luck without turning such little critters into either neurotic
little basket cases, or lunch for the cats?

Dude! Please don't take this chance. In hopes of sparing your meeces the same
trauma, I will offer up my own experience:

I introduced mouse to kitty by holding mouse and letting kitty sniff. This
went well enough, so of course, I got cocky. I let mouse sniff kitty and soon
they were face to face sniffing away, looking almost affectionate. I bragged
to coworkers, congratulated myself on defeating the powers of nature and
fostering peace between species, and even considered buying a video camera so I
could send proof of my accomplishment to various home video programs.

::: Hangs head in shame :::

Little did I know that my sweet, beautiful, often dim-witted window dressing
was, like all great huntresses, merely biding her time. She was scamming me
the whole time. Every time she sniffed the poor helpless creature, she was
deciding which wine would go best with him.

When she finally made her move, it was so fast and without warning, there was
nothing I could do to prevent it (especially since I had the thing right in her
face like the mother of all dumbasses). So, soon I was pooring peroxide over
the bite wounds, and once they got infected, carting the little bugger off to
the vet. I would, normally, out of pride, omit from this story the endless
snickering I endured from people in the waiting room, the receptionist, and
even the vet himself, but in the interest of conveying the intensity of the
guilt one feels in this situation, I'm willing to put it all out the Yes, I
took a $1.59 feeder mouse to the vet. The price of my iffy redemption: $36.00


The mouse lived, but never liked me much after that.

The moral: Never trust your kitties. I'm sure there are cats in this world
that are indifferent enough to let a mouse crawl around on them, but don't
count on yours being one of them. You can judge the danger by their level of
interest. They aren't looking to make friends with an animal this tiny,
they're thinking up recipes.

On the other hand, they make great entertainment (in cage) for your cats. I
would encourage any cat owner to save a couple from their doom and provide your
kitty with some MouseTV.

I'm not sure what kind of cage you have, but the top must be REALLY secure and
it shouldn't be tippable. I wouldn't trust them with a wire cage. If you have
the plastic kind (which I do), the cats get on top of them, and sometimes tip
them over, which causes the door to fly open and, well, the ending to THAT
story isn't nearly as happy.
You can secure the doors with clear packing tape. Most cages can be cat
proofed and then you can let the cats do whatever they want. Don't be
disturbed if they pounce at the cage--the mice will generally ignore them.
Check out the mice newsgroup for more info --they can be really fun,
intelligent pets.

From: (Scruffy892)

Little did I know that my sweet, beautiful, often dim-witted window dressing
was, like all great huntresses, merely biding her time. She was scamming me
the whole time. Every time she sniffed the poor helpless creature, she was
deciding which wine would go best with him.

When she finally made her move, it was so fast and without warning, there was
nothing I could do to prevent it (especially since I had the thing right in
her
face like the mother of all dumbasses). So, soon I was pooring peroxide over
the bite wounds, and once they got infected, carting the little bugger off to
the vet. I would, normally, out of pride, omit from this story the endless
snickering I endured from people in the waiting room, the receptionist, and
even the vet himself, but in the interest of conveying the intensity of the
guilt one feels in this situation, I'm willing to put it all out the Yes,
I
took a $1.59 feeder mouse to the vet. The price of my iffy redemption:
$36.00


The mouse lived, but never liked me much after that.

LMAO!!!!!!!!! Too funny! You really can't blame yourself though. It probably
seemed that the kitty might like the mouse (as a friend, not breakfast).

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm