My cat caught and brought home another mouse last night just before bedtime.
I had taken him on his usual 10 pm walk around the neighborhood, where he gets to run around and get exercise and climb up and down trees. He loves these walks of ours because he knows he is safe with me and that the other humans and dogs will leave him alone while I am with him. He is a very smart cat.
Then when we got back home last night the cat suddenly became fixated on the bushes outside my bedroom window, and would not leave it or come inside. So I left the front door open for him and sat down at my desk nearby and resumed working on my computer.
A few minutes later I noticed him out the corner of my eye come darting in through the door and keep going. His inner sanctum is the bathroom where his two litter boxes are.
Then I heard squeaking.
I got up and went into the bathroom and there he was batting around a small field mouse with his forepaws.
When the cat looked up at me the mouse got away and darted past me and into the hallway with the cat then hot on his heels. So I followed them in tow and we all 3 ended up in the kitchen where the mouse darted under the stove.
Then the cat started crying and looked up at me to solve his problem for him, since the stove weights about 500 lbs and the space below it is too small for the cat to get into.
So I pulled out the stove a few inches and got my micro flashlight off my mountain bike and looked behind the stove and there was the small mouse. It must have been a juvenile recently born because it was very small, about the size of your thumb.
The cat then jumped up on the counter top and got ready to jump down behind the stove but I caught the cat and took him into the bathroom and shut the door while I resolved this issue.
First I got my pole fishing spear, but the mouse was too small for the trident prongs on it.
Then I got a separate single spear tip with a barb on it, but the mouse was too small to be assured of spearing it successfully. It would have been like spearing a minnow.
So then I saw all the junk and trash behind the stove and realized I should vacuum this with my shop vacuum before shoving the stove back.
This also gave me a good idea -- the mouse was small enough to be sucked up the vacuum hose.
So I went into the utility closet and got my shop vacuum, the long hose for it, and two extension wands, all of which are wide enough for the size of the mouse.
Then I hooked up the vacuum, turned it on, and with the flashlight in my left hand and the vacuum wand in my right, I slowly and carefully leveled it closer and closer to the mouse, until all of a sudden there was a "whoosh!" and the mouse was sucked up into the hose and through it and into the shop vacuum body itself.
Problem solved.
Then I vacuumed up all the junk behind the stove, and then moved the stove back.
Finally I took the shop vacuum outside, to open it and let the mouse go.
But the force of the vacuum had killed the poor mouse.
So I dumped out all the dirt and dust and junk from the shop vacuum into a big plastic bag including the mouse and took the bag over to the dumpster and got rid of it.
Then I went to let out the cat from the bathroom and explained to him that his mouse was dead and gone. He came out of the bathroom and continued to search the whole house for the mouse. I guess he did not believe me.
Last time in the late summer he caught a big fat rat and brought it home, and the rat also got away and it took us 2 days to find it again. That time he trapped it in the bathtub when he heard it come out from a crack in the baseboards in the middle of the night, but the rat was fighting him back very successfully in the tub. So I had to get my pole spear and with the trident tip impaled the rat.
So this is the second time a rodent has gotten away from my cat in the house.
Sometimes he is a very dumb cat.
I had taken him on his usual 10 pm walk around the neighborhood, where he gets to run around and get exercise and climb up and down trees. He loves these walks of ours because he knows he is safe with me and that the other humans and dogs will leave him alone while I am with him. He is a very smart cat.
Then when we got back home last night the cat suddenly became fixated on the bushes outside my bedroom window, and would not leave it or come inside. So I left the front door open for him and sat down at my desk nearby and resumed working on my computer.
A few minutes later I noticed him out the corner of my eye come darting in through the door and keep going. His inner sanctum is the bathroom where his two litter boxes are.
Then I heard squeaking.
I got up and went into the bathroom and there he was batting around a small field mouse with his forepaws.
When the cat looked up at me the mouse got away and darted past me and into the hallway with the cat then hot on his heels. So I followed them in tow and we all 3 ended up in the kitchen where the mouse darted under the stove.
Then the cat started crying and looked up at me to solve his problem for him, since the stove weights about 500 lbs and the space below it is too small for the cat to get into.
So I pulled out the stove a few inches and got my micro flashlight off my mountain bike and looked behind the stove and there was the small mouse. It must have been a juvenile recently born because it was very small, about the size of your thumb.
The cat then jumped up on the counter top and got ready to jump down behind the stove but I caught the cat and took him into the bathroom and shut the door while I resolved this issue.
First I got my pole fishing spear, but the mouse was too small for the trident prongs on it.
Then I got a separate single spear tip with a barb on it, but the mouse was too small to be assured of spearing it successfully. It would have been like spearing a minnow.
So then I saw all the junk and trash behind the stove and realized I should vacuum this with my shop vacuum before shoving the stove back.
This also gave me a good idea -- the mouse was small enough to be sucked up the vacuum hose.
So I went into the utility closet and got my shop vacuum, the long hose for it, and two extension wands, all of which are wide enough for the size of the mouse.
Then I hooked up the vacuum, turned it on, and with the flashlight in my left hand and the vacuum wand in my right, I slowly and carefully leveled it closer and closer to the mouse, until all of a sudden there was a "whoosh!" and the mouse was sucked up into the hose and through it and into the shop vacuum body itself.
Problem solved.
Then I vacuumed up all the junk behind the stove, and then moved the stove back.
Finally I took the shop vacuum outside, to open it and let the mouse go.
But the force of the vacuum had killed the poor mouse.
So I dumped out all the dirt and dust and junk from the shop vacuum into a big plastic bag including the mouse and took the bag over to the dumpster and got rid of it.
Then I went to let out the cat from the bathroom and explained to him that his mouse was dead and gone. He came out of the bathroom and continued to search the whole house for the mouse. I guess he did not believe me.
Last time in the late summer he caught a big fat rat and brought it home, and the rat also got away and it took us 2 days to find it again. That time he trapped it in the bathtub when he heard it come out from a crack in the baseboards in the middle of the night, but the rat was fighting him back very successfully in the tub. So I had to get my pole spear and with the trident tip impaled the rat.
So this is the second time a rodent has gotten away from my cat in the house.
Sometimes he is a very dumb cat.
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