One down, ????? to go.
Every year at this time, we get a few mice in the house. I’m sure it’s a consequence of choosing to live surrounded by woods and I guess I can't blame them. Cold, burrow in a frost-covered log for the next three months or a nice, warm house with two kids who leave a trail of O's cereal everywhere they go. Hmmmm . . . tough choice.
And like last year, my cat seem to be hopeless at catching them. I see her, sitting with her nose pressed against a grate or sitting like a statue trying to will herself to fit under the refrigerator, but she rarely hits pay dirt.
So, we set our humane traps and every couple of nights we get one and we promptly march it out the door, head waaaaay across the yard, release it and hope it doesn’t find itself back in. (I wish I could play Wild Kingdom and put mini trackers them to see how many actually do find their way back. That could certainly prompt us to reevaluate our catch-and-release strategy.)
But anyway . . . today, while playing outside with the girls, the cat came happily bounding out of the woods from precisely the spot where we deposit the evicted rodents. At a distance, I could see she had something in her mouth. Hoping it wasn’t a bird or a rabbit, I ran toward her.
As she got closer, I could plainly see that it was a dead mouse. I’m willing to bet it’s one of the ones we dumped out that way in the last few days. What makes me think that?
She was extra proud. Prancing around and purring and rolling herself over for a belly scratch I could just imagine her thoughts: And you thought you could escape me. Fool! Now you’ll pay. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
And in my imagination she sounded exactly like Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Which is no surprise because I’ve seen that about eighty-bazillion times in the last two months.
So I gave her a scratch on the head and left her to her prey. Maybe now that she’s got the taste of it, she’ll work a little harder when she’s inside.
And like last year, my cat seem to be hopeless at catching them. I see her, sitting with her nose pressed against a grate or sitting like a statue trying to will herself to fit under the refrigerator, but she rarely hits pay dirt.
So, we set our humane traps and every couple of nights we get one and we promptly march it out the door, head waaaaay across the yard, release it and hope it doesn’t find itself back in. (I wish I could play Wild Kingdom and put mini trackers them to see how many actually do find their way back. That could certainly prompt us to reevaluate our catch-and-release strategy.)
But anyway . . . today, while playing outside with the girls, the cat came happily bounding out of the woods from precisely the spot where we deposit the evicted rodents. At a distance, I could see she had something in her mouth. Hoping it wasn’t a bird or a rabbit, I ran toward her.
As she got closer, I could plainly see that it was a dead mouse. I’m willing to bet it’s one of the ones we dumped out that way in the last few days. What makes me think that?
She was extra proud. Prancing around and purring and rolling herself over for a belly scratch I could just imagine her thoughts: And you thought you could escape me. Fool! Now you’ll pay. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
And in my imagination she sounded exactly like Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Which is no surprise because I’ve seen that about eighty-bazillion times in the last two months.
So I gave her a scratch on the head and left her to her prey. Maybe now that she’s got the taste of it, she’ll work a little harder when she’s inside.
posted by Kimberly at
7:59 PM
3 Comments:
Last year we had a couple of little field mice. We did the catch and release. They were just so darn cute. Little brown things with big sweet eyes. If they weren't so icky with the leaving of the poops everywhere, and nibbling on your food, and germs.... and, yeah, I guess I don't really like them.
Yechkkkk. I loathe rodents. I have done intensive rodent research in order never to have one living anywhere near me again. They're horrible, diseased, destructive critters. 1st - once they find their way in they leave a smelly trail for their cousins to follow - so you have to find their entrance(s) and block the off from the outside and then do a really serious cleaning to get rid of mouse smell everywhere. Humane traps are just a little cardio work-out for them and of course they'll just come back - they probably have a nest in your house by now and are busy reproducing - they can have 8 litters per year with 8-12 new rodents in each litter and then they can reproduce within a few months, so imagine how quickly your home can become infested.
UP - you are just full of good news, aren't you? ;-P
I know, I know. Last year, we drove them a couple of miles away to a field with no other houses around. We really should go back to that.
Colleen - They really are cute. It's too bad they're so damn disgusting.
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