So I went get my cat some food and when I opened the cabinet, a mouse sped out from inside. My cat immediately grabbed the mouse and brought it nearby me. Then he dropped the mouse and it is now hiding behind a bookshelf and draperies. After grabbing a wad of paper towels, I sealed off the room and searched for the mouse with a flashlight. When I found the mouse in the curtains, IT MADE EYE CONTACT WITH ME. The problem is that my sweet cat rubbed against my leg as though I was helping him hunt this mouse. My true intention was to catch it in the paper towels and let it out. So now I’m torn because the mouse looked at me desperately and my cat thinks I’m helping him hunt a mouse.
I don’t know what to do. It is past 11 pm. I need to go to bed. But I can’t sleep knowing there’s a mouse on the loose. AND I would feel terrible to wake up to a mouse massacre.
Do I just keep the door closed and let nature take its course? I’m sad even thinking about it.
(Obviously I know that a mouse inside is a problem and I’m already working on the solution to that.)
I already know that I’m ridiculous when it comes to animals so you don’t need to tell me that.
Updates
+1 y
Update… I just couldn’t close the door on this situation. I tore apart the room and caught the mouse in my wad of paper towels. I could feel how hard he was breathing through the layers of paper towel!
I rewarded my sweet kitty cat with some treats. He’s lived a charmed, indoor life and although he may have enjoyed eating that mouse, I could not let that unfold inside of the house.
Would you let your cat eat the mouse? (Active situation) Help please?
Let the cat eat! Its natural food for it But if it hasn't had many meals like that in the past it might not be a good idea for it to eat the whole thing. Its probably used to regular cat food, real wild food might give it bad indigestion
For my cat, i always try to get her more natural food, and I definitely give her raw chicken when I can, whenever i cut off the excess bits off my chicken. She absolutely loves it. Now she's an outdoor cat, so she catches plenty of prey that tries to make its way into our home. Especially now thats she's preggers. I'm hoping for some super healthy kittens pretty soon :)))))
Not too hard, the hard part was getting her used to the indoors for a bit for her to recognize "home". She's naturally an outdoor cat, she came from the reservations out here. So she was always sneaking out whenever she could and wouldn't come back for a day or two. Now she's lounges inside out regularly.
I would never let or allow my cat to eat (city) rodents, not even lizards... my concern is the pesticides that people use, besides the other viruses and bacteria, disease that they might carry
but my Luna has only caught one bird and she brought it inside the house alive and she didn't seem sure about what to do next after the catch... so I just freed the little thing, which flew away unharmed, just a little bit wonky but well... lol
Luna was the one that caught the bird outside at the yards... and brought the bird inside the house, bird's head inside her mouth so I thought damn!! but she had not killed it yet or anything
so I just got her to drop the bird first... which started to fly all over the place and around the house then yeah... I just opened the door and windows till it found it's way out, lol, while I was still trying to block and catch Luna because she was going ninja all over the place as well, trying to catch the bird again
lol.. the perils of being a cat owner. I regret takinig the bird out of my cat's mouth that he spent months trying to catch.
But I understand the sympathy to the frightened mouse. Soon you, will have 20 mice and cycle repeats. sometimes they don't eat them, they just play with them til they are dead. they are really cruel and heartless animals, but they sure are cut and fluffy when they wanna be.
When cats catch mice and then drop it at your feet, its not hunting to eat it, its giving it to you as a gift to gain your affection, it expects YOU to eat it lol (which for obvious reasons, never do that), but the thing is if you reward this behavior with petting, they will continue the "they catch it and you release it outside" game.
My cat was a mouser that would catch the mouse, play with it till it got bored, then it'd kill it. It might chew it for a little bit but it wouldn't eat it. Then when it was done I'd just pick up the carcass and dispose of it. I'd let the cat do that.
I was trying to allow myself to be okay with that… if he was an outside cat, I might have been more okay with it. I felt like the mouse was trapped— it wasn’t a fair game like it may have been outside to give the guy a fighting chance at least.
What an amazing cat... But your first goal was to release it so do it! If cruel nature isn't your cup of tea, let it go! Your cat is still eating well and the mouse gets to live another day!
I feel like it might be different if my cat was an outside cat and the mouse had a fighting chance. It almost seemed cruel because it was stuck inside with no escape. Outdoors and I might have let nature take its course.
Cats eat mice it’s part of life, but my previous cats were never hungry, and it’s hard to condemn a cute mouse to a horrible death lol. I had hamsters growing up so I probably would have done the same. It was good to give your cat some treats to reinforce good behavior though.
I've heard that if our kitties love us, they will bring us live but injured mice. They think that we don't know how to hunt and need their help learning. They're probably right.
Like you, I take the mouse in some towels and throw it outside for the birds-of-prey to find. Everyone wins!
With my experience with cats , i dont think you have a choice. The cat we had when i was young, a male and a female. Both excellent catching rats no mind mice. They use to line up their kills on the back door step on a morning. This included birds as well..
Yeah house cats who go outside tend to bring their owners "gifts". Basically because they think you are stupid and don't know how to hunt so they do it for you.
If it was a ferral cat maybe. you know your cat and type of diet it's use to. I think I remember someone saying that the cats don't have the right environment of normal flora to tolerate raw meals and may get sick unless they diet regularly includes this type of meal.
I'm glad you got the mouse saved, I know one time at my old house when my cousin was young she had a Hamster, Cat named Sylvester, Mice in Aquarium well the Mice caught some kind of virus and I came into the bedroom and the mice were all dead with their bodies exploded their heads were also missing it was sick Ewww, and the cat killed the Hamster well these cats can't be trusted and twice it was horrible sites cause I'm a wuss at these things
Cute mouse. The cat had his chance to kill it and didn't therefore I can do what I want with it. So I would just try to get him out. But it's not like I would bothered if he did eat it.
Most Helpful Opinions