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Friday 21 October 2016

Where's a Cat When You Need One?

If you've been reading from the beginning of my blog about six months ago, you might remember this post, or this one, about mice that my cats have captured in the house and how they escaped with their lives (the mice, not the cats) (wait, that sounds like the cats died, but honestly, they didn't).

Well, it's that time of year again - autumn - when the nights get crispy cold and the days aren't all that warm either, and all Mother Nature's critters get a little nervous about the coming snow and ice and lack of food. The spiders and the mice seem especially worried, or at least those are the critters that seem to want to get in our house the most. The spiders I'll leave to another time, or maybe never, because my friend Chicken has a thing about spiders, and not in a good way. Although she does write hilariously about them, and it would be worth your while to read that link, if you haven't already.

Let's hope that this mouse story will be the one and only mouse story this fall, although it's early in the season, so optimism may be unwarranted. This happened a couple of weeks ago, but it came to mind again today when one of our cats was being extra inquisitive in the living room, sniffing around under the furniture. Cats are usually our early warning system for small intruders. He kept poking around, so I felt the urge to poke around, too, and while gingerly feeling under the coffee table (the kind that goes almost to the floor on all sides) I found three toy mice (one pink, one blue, one grey) but no real ones, and while I'm glad I didn't find a live mouse, I'm also hoping I didn't miss finding one.

While the mouse I set out to write about never actually got in the house, it sure seemed like it wanted to. My husband and I had just finished supper and were chatting in our den, which has a regular door with a sliding screen door opening onto the deck. We had the door open to air out the house a bit, because I may have burned something while cooking. Eventually I happened to look up, and there was a tiny grey mouse near the top of the screen door, hanging on for dear life and trying - I just know it - to find a hole, any hole, to get inside for some of what we had cooked. Even bad cooking smells good to a critter, apparently.

I wasn't too sure that there wasn't a hole somewhere big enough for it to squeeze through, so after admiring its cuteness for about a second, I hastened to shut the door, got my camera and went out the kitchen door to the deck. My husband told me the mouse jumped down in the meantime, and it was nowhere to be seen by the time I got outside.

Probably just as well. It might have run up one pant leg and down the other, like a mouse did to my father when he was a young man. He worked in a commercial hen house, and there were a lot of rats and mice around because of the hen feed, but still - the nerve of that rodent! Dad still shivered telling the story sixty years later, and from the way I felt just thinking about that mouse maybe being on the deck with me, I'm pretty sure I understand why.


This is not the mouse hanging onto our screen door, not even remotely. When I was searching for "mouse" on Pixabay, there were a terrifying number of snake pictures mixed in with the mouse pictures, so I gave up looking and picked the next mouse picture I saw. Thank you, Pixabay .. I think. Please sort your photos in a more logical way before I need you again. Pretty please?



 

14 comments:

gz said...

I don't mind spiders...they deal with dust mites and flies...but no rodents,thankyou!

Joanne Noragon said...

Probably just as well a cat did not notice--and go up the screen after the mouse.

jenny_o said...

I agree, gz!

jenny_o said...

This is true - and I never thought of it because generally they leave the screens alone. A mouse would have been too big a temptation, though.

LL Cool Joe said...

During the summer I was sitting outside on a sunbed (a rare thing in the UK) when a large rat shot by me. A mouse I can cope with, but the rat freaked me out a little. We don't have screens on our doors, most people don't, but now I will always think about the possibility of mice and rats coming into our kitchen. Thanks. :D

dinthebeast said...

Briana used to catch mice and take them down to the outdoor plant display at Home Depot to let them go.
When we were living at the Foundry, there was a cat there that I caught chasing a rat down the main corridor and into our living space. I lectured the cat and caught the rat in a trap, which took a couple of days. The cat remained oblivious.

-Doug in Oakland

Elephant's Child said...

I may have told this story (and apologise if I have). We had a mouse in the house. Himself bad-mouthed the cats for their inefficiency. The very next morning getting dressed for work as he went to put on his shoes a mouse head rolled out. Eeeeuw.

Mr. Shife said...

I hear you. Not a big fan myself. We had an infestation at my fraternity one year and it was horrible. Hope the house continues to stay mouse free.

jenny_o said...

No problem; any time, Joe!

Rats ... brrr.

jenny_o said...

Maybe you have a "herding" cat, as opposed to a "catching" cat ...

jenny_o said...

I swear, they can understand us. When they want to.

jenny_o said...

Thanks - you and I both!

dinthebeast said...

Wasn't our cat, and now that I think about him, I hope he's OK. I think he is, I think I remember hearing of someone scooping him up as everyone was leaving.
He meant well, if you discount the screaming matches he got into with other cats who wandered in...

-Doug in Oakland

jenny_o said...

Most cats are territorial, and some are very much so. I hope that guy was okay too.