We found the mouse yesterday afternoon. He was in the toe of GC’s slipper. He was alive and showed no obvious signs of trauma other than, well, looking traumatized. Poor wee thing.
We put him – slipper and all – out on the front porch. GC said he could keep the slipper since he’s never wearing it again.
After a few minutes he crept out of the slipper and wandered about the porch, looking a bit dazed and confused.
I figured he probably hadn’t eaten since Sunday, when he and Duncan started playing cat-and-mouse, so we offered him slivered almonds, lettuce and rye bread. He picked up a bit of bread in his tiny little paws and nibbled it very delicately.
After a few minutes he seemed to be feeling better and he scampered down the front steps and into the garden.
He’s probably back in my basement by now.
It is good to have sympathy for mice.
They can be bastards, those mice, but I still think they’re such sweet little things.
Gee Zoom, I was looking forward to some of GC mouse soup. Oh well, I am sure Duncan can find another mouse to hunt. That’s a great picture of the mouse in GC slipper.
I admire your willingness to live with a mouse and I know they look cute, but you know how I always like to be the voice of doom and gloom…. Because where there’s one mouse, there’s usually at least one more. Mice breed every 21 days and can have up to 30 in a litter. And they can begin breeding shortly after giving birth. They will eat and contaminate your and Duncan’s food and they carry a whole host of diseases that could make both of you really sick. Also, they chew through electrical wiring and other stuff in your house. And after a while the build-up of poop starts to smell. Maybe you should let Duncan take the lead in this situation.
I’m with XUP on this…and I wouldn’t trust Duncan to be the exterminator…in my experience boy cats like to play with mice but don’t dispatch them efficiently, for that you need a female mouser.
Luna lines them up for us. In a night she’ll take out 5 or 6. At one point we were sure she was trying to spell out her name. She made an L from two and a U from 3 and then one more I. I think she ran out of time that night.
my grandma had a cat she got specifically to hunt mice in her basement. the cat proved to be a lazy softie, and just played with the mice without disposing of them.
My gran on the other hand didn’t like the idea of furry little creatures around her pickle jars, so one rainy afternoon, some of the mice met their demise with a few stroke from my gran’s broom.
We never left dirty dishes in the sink/untidy beds ever again.
I’m always amazed at how wee city mice are. I grew up in the country and the mice there were MUCH bigger… like the size of rats… and the rats… you don’t even want to know.
My cat has started staring under the stove for the last two nights…just like your photo of Duncan. I flashed a light under and sure enough there is a mouse! I screamed too. It is sweet that you did the catch and release thing….feeding it was awfully nice too. My husband wants to get traps…I’m pushing for humane ones. Poor mice. Well done Duncan too.
I would have no trouble leaving the mice alone (we have a problem once or twice a year when the weather changes) if they didn’t poop everywhere including in my cabinets. All of my food is in mouse proof containers. My cat doesn’t like to kill them. I think he looks on them as little buddies and plays with them.
I’m with XUP on this. Call me cruel, but I kill mice with traps whenever I find them in my house. I draw the line at glue traps but use the regular ones that snap closed. I do not catch and release them and I absolutely would not feed them and treat them like cute little “mousies”, however cute they may look close up. If I had a cat I would be encouraging it to go after the mice; I would never rescue a mouse from a cat on the rare occasion that he has got the chance to be the predator that he is. Ha! I am the voice of doom and gloom today!
I don’t think my mice even come up from the basement unless Duncan brings them up. They live in a hole in the wall in the basement, where the water main comes in. I’ve never seen any evidence of mice in the kitchen. I’m willing to peacefully coexist with them unless and until I see mouse turds in my kitchen!