Baby Eyes' successful hunt

There was a mouse in the house today, and Baby Eyes was the first to see it.
Once she got after it, the hunt kept her fully occupied for more than an
hour. When she finally captured the mouse, it was so worn out it just
surrendered, and sat next to the cat, grooming itself, for the longest time,
while Baby Eyes kept a watchful eye and occasionally reached out to tap it
lightly as is to say, "Let me know when you're ready to meet your Maker."
After about 15 minutes of this, kitty got up and calmly began eating her
prey. She didn't waste a bit. Even the tail is nowhere to be found.

Pat wrote:
There was a mouse in the house today, and Baby Eyes was the first to
see it. Once she got after it, the hunt kept her fully occupied for
more than an hour. When she finally captured the mouse, it was so
worn out it just surrendered, and sat next to the cat, grooming
itself, for the longest time, while Baby Eyes kept a watchful eye and
occasionally reached out to tap it lightly as is to say, "Let me know
when you're ready to meet your Maker." After about 15 minutes of
this, kitty got up and calmly began eating her prey. She didn't waste
a bit. Even the tail is nowhere to be found.

Pat wrote:
There was a mouse in the house today, and Baby Eyes was the first to
see it. Once she got after it, the hunt kept her fully occupied for
more than an hour. When she finally captured the mouse, it was so
worn out it just surrendered, and sat next to the cat, grooming
itself, for the longest time, while Baby Eyes kept a watchful eye and
occasionally reached out to tap it lightly as is to say, "Let me know
when you're ready to meet your Maker." After about 15 minutes of
this, kitty got up and calmly began eating her prey. She didn't waste
a bit. Even the tail is nowhere to be found.

If it had that much time to sit around I'd have taken it outside away from
the cats.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote

Pat wrote:
There was a mouse in the house today, and Baby Eyes was the first to
see it. Once she got after it, the hunt kept her fully occupied for
more than an hour. When she finally captured the mouse, it was so
worn out it just surrendered, and sat next to the cat, grooming
itself, for the longest time, while Baby Eyes kept a watchful eye and
occasionally reached out to tap it lightly as is to say, "Let me know
when you're ready to meet your Maker." After about 15 minutes of
this, kitty got up and calmly began eating her prey. She didn't waste
a bit. Even the tail is nowhere to be found.

If it had that much time to sit around I'd have taken it outside away from
the cats.

Ordinarily, I would have taken the mouse away, but in this case I felt it
was the wrong approach, for a number of reasons: (1) Baby Eyes has not,
IIRC, caught a mouse all by herself in a very long time; (2) she was the
only cat in the room during the entire incident; (3) she kept stopping to
look at me, as if to make sure I was watching and proud of her; (4) the
mouse seemed to have accepted its fate calmly; (5) the fresh meat was good
for Baby Eyes, who has grown chubby on kibbles.

Pat wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote

Pat wrote:
There was a mouse in the house today, and Baby Eyes was the first to
see it. Once she got after it, the hunt kept her fully occupied for
more than an hour. When she finally captured the mouse, it was so
worn out it just surrendered, and sat next to the cat, grooming
itself, for the longest time, while Baby Eyes kept a watchful eye
and occasionally reached out to tap it lightly as is to say, "Let
me know when you're ready to meet your Maker." After about 15
minutes of
this, kitty got up and calmly began eating her prey. She didn't
waste
a bit. Even the tail is nowhere to be found.

If it had that much time to sit around I'd have taken it outside
away from the cats.

Ordinarily, I would have taken the mouse away, but in this case I
felt it was the wrong approach, for a number of reasons: (1) Baby
Eyes has not, IIRC, caught a mouse all by herself in a very long
time; (2) she was the only cat in the room during the entire
incident; (3) she kept stopping to look at me, as if to make sure I
was watching and proud of her; (4) the mouse seemed to have accepted
its fate calmly; (5) the fresh meat was good for Baby Eyes, who has
grown chubby on kibbles.

Whatever you say, Pat.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote

Whatever you say, Pat.

Yeah. Being a city person you might not be aware that successful relocation
of mice so they don't come back means you take them at least half a mile
away. And I just wasn't in the moon to walk a mile in the forest in the rain
in the dark last night for the sake of a mouse, having already spent most of
the day walking in the forest in search of four horses that broke through
the fence yesterday. I never did find them, but I did find some huge
blisters on my feet when I took off my boots. And I knew that today I'd
probably have lots more walking to do, as well as fence repairs.

Those four horses are still missing.... I found fresh poop and tracks, and
heard one neigh, but now I am beat, and haven't had a bite to eat yet today
and if that mouse was still here I might eat it myself.

Pat wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote

Whatever you say, Pat.

Yeah. Being a city person you might not be aware that successful
relocation of mice so they don't come back means you take them at
least half a mile away.

I'm not a city person. And I've dealt with mice in my house when they were
building around here. Found one climbing my shower curtain, in fact. But I
wouldn't just let it sit there and groom its whiskers and then watch the cat
eat it.

in the forest in the rain in the dark last night for the sake of a
mouse, having already spent most of the day walking in the forest in
search of four horses that broke through the fence yesterday. I never
did find them, but I did find some huge blisters on my feet when I
took off my boots. And I knew that today I'd probably have lots more
walking to do, as well as fence repairs.

I keep moving as far away from the city as possible but they keep
encroaching on my territory. Memphis keeps annexing everything around.
After this year I'll probably move into an incorporated area (Germantown or
Bartlett, or what the heck over into Arkansas) so I don't have to deal with
the city.

Jill

jmcquown wrote:

Pat wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote

Whatever you say, Pat.

Yeah. Being a city person you might not be aware that successful
relocation of mice so they don't come back means you take them at
least half a mile away.

I'm not a city person. And I've dealt with mice in my house when
they were building around here. Found one climbing my shower curtain,
in fact. But I wouldn't just let it sit there and groom its whiskers
and then watch the cat eat it.

What's this squabbling about? Is there really a problem because Pat
allowed her cat to be a cat? It doesn't really matter to me what *I*
would do in that situation, because I'm not. She is.

Cats catch mice, that's what they do. Is it really immoral *not* to
interfere with that?

Joyce

wrote:
jmcquown wrote:

Pat wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote

Whatever you say, Pat.

Yeah. Being a city person you might not be aware that successful
relocation of mice so they don't come back means you take them at
least half a mile away.

I'm not a city person. And I've dealt with mice in my house when
they were building around here. Found one climbing my shower
curtain, in fact. But I wouldn't just let it sit there and groom
its whiskers and then watch the cat eat it.

What's this squabbling about? Is there really a problem because Pat
allowed her cat to be a cat? It doesn't really matter to me what *I*
would do in that situation, because I'm not. She is.

Cats catch mice, that's what they do. Is it really immoral *not* to
interfere with that?

Joyce

I have an odd cat. Persia doesn't bother my pet bird and she's afraid of
mice. I have a hard time with seeing anything get killed unnecessarily.

Jill

jmcquown wrote:
I have an odd cat. Persia doesn't bother my pet bird and she's afraid of
mice. I have a hard time with seeing anything get killed unnecessarily.

Jill

I do, too Jill. And the older I get, the worse I get. DH and me both
have turned into old softies.
Our cats had a gopher cornered outside the other day terrorizing it. I
just got to feeling so sorry for it I made DH go out and finish the
poor thing off.