Hello all,

A quick question... we've been living with a cat for the last five months
(he's nine months old now). He has quite a few toys, his favourite being a
plush mouse that's tied to a 2-feet-long piece of string (so that we can
pull it around).

For the last 10 days or so, in every single night, about ten minutes after
we go to bed, the cat walks into our bedroom with the mouse in his mouth,
meowing softly (sounds like "rrrr-oo-ow"; it's hard to meow properly with a
mouse in your mouth, I guess), drops the mouse at the foot ot bed and waits
there until he's acknowledged (usually with a pat on the head, "good
boy"-style). In the event that he can't get the mouse to us (if the string
is wrapped around something, for example) he'll sit by the mouse meowing
until one of us releases it; he'll then wait for us to get back to bed and
then will bring the mouse in.

So, the question is... since I've never seen a cat do anything quite like
that, what, exactly, is the cat trying to do? Is he
(a) trying to get us to play with him and the mouse?
(b) bringing the mouse to sleep with us?
(c) bringing us prey, as that would be his hunting time and we're clearly
lousy hunters?
(d) doing something else entirely?

I think the most likely explanation is (c), in which case the question
becomes: what should we do? Should we pick up the mouse, "accepting" the
gift?

Any clues?

Thanks in advance,

-Wilson