I once considered adopting African spiny-mice, and decided to house
them atop the one piece of furniture that Nox cannot reach, and not to
let them out when she was in the room.  However, then I ended up
spending the money I'd saved for their cage and supplies on poor
Smokey when we took him in.  Now, with four cats, and an apartment, I
don't think it's fair to put the cats all in the same bedroom so
rodents can come out, so...no rodents for us.

--Fil

Indeed, rodents do not last long in this house. I know this as fact from the
number caught in the garden and brought inside... My three view rodents as
fast food snacks!

Cheers, helen s

Maybe even Hairy Houdinis. <grin>

I've got to share my story-

I have a little cat named Boomer who is probably 12 years old and has never
weighed more than 4 or 5 pounds.  She's the friendliest cat I've got -
everyone who leaves my house leaves with Boomer-fuzz on them, like it or
not.  She ain't the sharpest crayon in the box, but then she doesn't need to
be.

Many years ago, against my wishes my daughter came home toting a hamster in
a small cage.  Well, even if it IS a rat, it had to have a nice house so we
went out and got the Habitrail with the tunnels and little nest boxes and
all that.  The hamster (Millie) spent every waking minute escaping.  One
night I was wakened from a dead sleep by the hamster squeaking and came out
into the hall to find Millie had gotten out of her cage and squeezed under
the door to the room, and run right into Boomer.  Boomer was watching with
interest while Millie tried to jump up the door (why, when she had just
successfully come UNDER it?) but Boomer didn't make an aggressive move.
Another time Boomer was accidentally shut up in the room with Millie when
she escaped the Habitrail, and Millie ran into my husband's snow boot and
chewed the wool liner up.  Boomer could have gotten her if she wanted, but
she was happy just to watch Millie's antics.

Millie's luck ran out one night when she escaped and ran into Tuffy, who
knew just what to do with a rodent.  Imagine my horror when he sauntered
into the room carrying Millie!  DD knew just how to play it and we rushed
out and bought another hamster that night.  He was also an escape artist but
so mean that you couldn't handle him.  I finally pawned him off on the 4th
grade teacher...

Now (2 hamsters later) we have 4 inside cats, 2 parakeets and a lovebird.  I
NEVER let the cats out when the birds are free.  Even Boomer chatters when
she sees the birdies.  You can have cats and prey species, but you have to
be vigilant all the time.

Cindy

One of our science teachers was told to take a bunch of his snake
collection home this year.  The last couple of years when I worked for
him, he not only had around six snakes in aquariums at any one time, he
also had his mobile reproducing feeding system in place.  four screened
aquariums with mice in them.  I called them breakfast, lunch, dinner,
and lucky, as lucky usually had the moms and babies in it.  HRFL Tiger
beat me to the gun on a grand tradition, naming the food.

Pam S.

This reminds me of when I put up a bird feeder outside a window, so the
cats would have something to look at. It wasn't a very bright idea.
After I put it up, Nikki couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep, she had to
watch the birdies *all* the time. Even if there weren't any birds at the
feeder (like in the middle of the night), she had to keep an eye on if
in case any birds showed up. She was a nervous wreck, so I had to take
down the feeder.

My niece once smuggled two pet rats into her home where they already had
a cat, Bella. My niece managed to hide the rats for several days, and my
brother and SIL never realised. They just wondered why Bella was so
upset and acting so strangely. When they finally found out about the
rats, they got them a cage, but Bella was so fixated on the rats that
they finally had to rehome them to calm her down.