Baby Eyes' successful hunt

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Pat - 25 Dec 2005 00:05 GMT

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.

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jmcquown - 25 Dec 2005 14:35 GMT

> 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
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> this, kitty got up and calmly began eating her prey. She didn't waste
> a bit. Even the tail is nowhere to be found.

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mlbriggs - 26 Dec 2005 19:58 GMT

>> 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
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>> this, kitty got up and calmly began eating her prey. She didn't waste
>> a bit. Even the tail is nowhere to be found.

I hope she didn't want to "kiss" you after dinner/ MLB

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jmcquown - 25 Dec 2005 14:36 GMT

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

Jill

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Pat - 25 Dec 2005 16:34 GMT

>> 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
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> 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.

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jmcquown - 25 Dec 2005 19:58 GMT

>>> 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
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> its fate calmly; (5) the fresh meat was good for Baby Eyes, who has
> grown chubby on kibbles.

Whatever you say, Pat.

Jill

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Pat - 25 Dec 2005 20:35 GMT

> 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.

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jmcquown - 26 Dec 2005 09:47 GMT

>> 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

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jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net - 26 Dec 2005 11:17 GMT

> >> 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

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jmcquown - 26 Dec 2005 13:21 GMT

> > Pat wrote:
> > > "jmcquown" <jmcquown@bellsouth.net> wrote
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> 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

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sriddles@aol.com - 26 Dec 2005 14:07 GMT

> 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.

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cybercat - 27 Dec 2005 03:36 GMT

> > > Pat wrote:
> > > > "jmcquown" <jmcquown@bellsouth.net> wrote
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
> 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.

I do too. Sitting and watching a little creature of any kind get torn apart
implies a certain heartlessness that I find disturbing.

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jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@sonic.net - 27 Dec 2005 08:41 GMT

> I have an odd cat. Persia doesn't bother my pet bird and she's
> afraid of mice.

Actually, that's not totally odd. If a cat isn't taught by its mother
that mice are food, they're unlikely to hunt them. However, they will
still chase them (as that is instinctive), and might play with them
cruelly. But maybe not. And if you treat the other animals as family
members, the cats can see that and will often act accordingly. (But
not always - when I was a teenager, our family cat ate our family bird
one day while we were out.)

> I have a hard time with seeing anything get killed unnecessarily.

I don't like to see it either. I remember once seeing Smudge chase a
large moth around our house. I wouldn't have minded if she'd quickly
dispatched it and ate it, but she tortured it. As soon as I realized
that's what she was doing, I caught the moth and let it go outside.
(It did fly away, so I guess she didn't mortally wound it.) Anyway, I
don't want to see animals suffer, either, even if it's something that
occurs in nature all the time.

But I guess I don't understand why it's a problem that Pat doesn't
interfere with her cat killing a mouse. You don't have to see that...

Joyce

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