Anonymous wrote:Killing and eating prey isn't instinctive for cats. It's a learned behavior. Sometimes a cat will figure it out on their own, but it's rare.

Really? I find this hard to believe.

I don’t think we can ever really win this battle but. You fight the good fight OP!

Ps did you ever see that BillMurray movie about golf and the ground hog? Not ground hog day, long before that…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a cat that could go outside and she regularly brought living mice without a scratch inside our home. She put them somewhere and left. The mice lived a peacful life in our home until someone discovered them. We survived!

Yes! This is what happens in my house a lot! We also have three cats. One elderly male who doesn’t hunt and isn’t interested and two young cats, both who hunt but one who is exceptional.

Unfortunately, little boy hunter brings okay things inside our home. He will bring mice to play with and sometimes I’m stuck with getting them out. I’m a humane person and never want a creature to die or be tortured by the cat. We have humane traps we use if we can’t just box up mouse and that always works with a little peanut butter in it. We don’t fret too much about it! Now, when little boy cat brings in birds..that is when I freak out! He’s brought in love birds several times! We always manage to release them but not without chaos and some mess. He even brought a bat in the kids room in the middle of the night one summer, and yes, everyone including cat had to get rabies shots and for the cat a booster. He wears a jingle bell collar now at night!

OP here. Would FREAK out over the bat!! I’ve had my own encounter down south. Chaos is a good way to describe it!

Why?

Why?? Because it’s scary to have a winged creature that’s possibly carrying rabies and can bite flying around your home while you sleep! I’m the pp who had to wake up to screaming children and it was definitely freaky! I’ve since learned though that it’s best to trap the bat somehow and contact animal control who can then test it for rabies so that you might not have to go through the whole vaccine ordeal.

I feel for you, OP! Every time one of my cats stares at at wall or sits facing the fridge, I get nervous!

Anonymous wrote:Killing and eating prey isn't instinctive for cats. It's a learned behavior. Sometimes a cat will figure it out on their own, but it's rare.

This has not been my experience. Where did you get this information that it "isn't instinctive?" Who do you think is teaching the cat?

Killing and eating prey isn't instinctive for cats. It's a learned behavior. Sometimes a cat will figure it out on their own, but it's rare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a cat that could go outside and she regularly brought living mice without a scratch inside our home. She put them somewhere and left. The mice lived a peacful life in our home until someone discovered them. We survived!

Yes! This is what happens in my house a lot! We also have three cats. One elderly male who doesn’t hunt and isn’t interested and two young cats, both who hunt but one who is exceptional.

Unfortunately, little boy hunter brings okay things inside our home. He will bring mice to play with and sometimes I’m stuck with getting them out. I’m a humane person and never want a creature to die or be tortured by the cat. We have humane traps we use if we can’t just box up mouse and that always works with a little peanut butter in it. We don’t fret too much about it! Now, when little boy cat brings in birds..that is when I freak out! He’s brought in love birds several times! We always manage to release them but not without chaos and some mess. He even brought a bat in the kids room in the middle of the night one summer, and yes, everyone including cat had to get rabies shots and for the cat a booster. He wears a jingle bell collar now at night!

OP here. Would FREAK out over the bat!! I’ve had my own encounter down south. Chaos is a good way to describe it!

Why?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a cat that could go outside and she regularly brought living mice without a scratch inside our home. She put them somewhere and left. The mice lived a peacful life in our home until someone discovered them. We survived!

Yes! This is what happens in my house a lot! We also have three cats. One elderly male who doesn’t hunt and isn’t interested and two young cats, both who hunt but one who is exceptional.

Unfortunately, little boy hunter brings okay things inside our home. He will bring mice to play with and sometimes I’m stuck with getting them out. I’m a humane person and never want a creature to die or be tortured by the cat. We have humane traps we use if we can’t just box up mouse and that always works with a little peanut butter in it. We don’t fret too much about it! Now, when little boy cat brings in birds..that is when I freak out! He’s brought in love birds several times! We always manage to release them but not without chaos and some mess. He even brought a bat in the kids room in the middle of the night one summer, and yes, everyone including cat had to get rabies shots and for the cat a booster. He wears a jingle bell collar now at night!

OP here. Would FREAK out over the bat!! I’ve had my own encounter down south. Chaos is a good way to describe it!

Anonymous wrote:I’m LOLing at the Lysol wipes.

Recommended by experts. You never pick up mouse crap without first disinfecting

Anonymous wrote:That seems like overkill, but you do you.

You don’t want them in the ducting.

Anonymous wrote:We had a cat that could go outside and she regularly brought living mice without a scratch inside our home. She put them somewhere and left. The mice lived a peacful life in our home until someone discovered them. We survived!

Yes! This is what happens in my house a lot! We also have three cats. One elderly male who doesn’t hunt and isn’t interested and two young cats, both who hunt but one who is exceptional.

Unfortunately, little boy hunter brings okay things inside our home. He will bring mice to play with and sometimes I’m stuck with getting them out. I’m a humane person and never want a creature to die or be tortured by the cat. We have humane traps we use if we can’t just box up mouse and that always works with a little peanut butter in it. We don’t fret too much about it! Now, when little boy cat brings in birds..that is when I freak out! He’s brought in love birds several times! We always manage to release them but not without chaos and some mess. He even brought a bat in the kids room in the middle of the night one summer, and yes, everyone including cat had to get rabies shots and for the cat a booster. He wears a jingle bell collar now at night!

I’m LOLing at the Lysol wipes.

We had a cat that could go outside and she regularly brought living mice without a scratch inside our home. She put them somewhere and left. The mice lived a peacful life in our home until someone discovered them. We survived!

That seems like overkill, but you do you.

Ugh!! Thank GOD for cats. Have seen no poop ANYWHERE, pantry, etc. - I just vacuumed today and am always on the lookout for them as we are out on acreage. Then I saw her staring at the duct after we banished the mouse (she was pissed we took her toy away) and knew that's where it came in. Took the cover off and there were maybe four turds. Put lysol wipes on them to deactivate virus/bacteria and shut the plastic louvers to the downstairs vents for tonight. Will clean the few turds and wipe out duct tomorrow, then put peppermint teabags in each of the vents on the main floor to repel them (yes, it works, and mice never really go more than 35 feet from a food source). Next call an exterminator for an inspection and the HVAC guy as well (husband will also check the attic as we've had squirrels set up shop up there - it's a damn zoo, I tell ya!). Will have house re-sealed and re-nag my husband about replacing weather stripping, etc and replacing the darn garage door seals as well. Now I keep hearing noises EVERYWHERE that aren't related to mice - cat jumping on something, etc! We have three cats and only one is highly interested - the other two just yawn and watch her chase it.