(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

I seem to have developed catdar. I'm so used to the noises frankxcat and timbus make about the house that I've got an instinctive understanding of where they are and what they're up to. This morning at around 6 am I heard odd, staccatio thumping in the loungeroom, and I knew at once something unusual was going on. This was confirmed when I staggered into the loo and only Frank came to harass me for his breakfast.

I discovered Tim playing with a mouse under the table. He was picking it up in his mouth, moving it to a new spot, then pawing it a bit before moving it again. Now, I know the whole playing with your food thing is a solo predator's safety procedure: an injury can be fatal if it leaves you unable to feed yourself. Cats will even go through the routine with their toys, pretending to ignore them to see if they're still mobile. But the shifting the prey around from spot to spot was new to me. Maybe Tim was claiming it, shifting it away from my or Franks' attention? (Surprisingly, Frank didn't seem to have noticed the mouse's presence at all.)

I picked Tim up and shoved him into the startled arms of my naked and half-conscious husband, then got a container and caught the mouse. It wasn't hard - the poor thing was torpid with terror. Freezing to become invisible is a bad strategy on carpet or in tupperware. As far as I could see, it was completely uninjured; Tim must have moved it about as gently as a mother cat moving her kittens. I popped it out the front door and when I looked again it had vanished.

This makes up a bit for a poor mouse I once accidentally caught in a sticky cockroach trap and couldn't free.

Comments

[jblum.livejournal.com]

I picked Tim up and shoved him into the startled arms of my naked and half-conscious husband

A filthy lie, I tell you. I wasn't even half-conscious.

[trinalin.livejournal.com]

Don't think Leo's encountered a mouse yet. Biggest critter he's gotten to play "predator/prey" with is a centipede. And they never survive the play. (Centipedes are evil things - nothing should have that many legs - so I'm happy that he liked to play with the nasty things.)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Ah! I wish I'd known then what I know now. Thanks Ace.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I can't quite get over how perfect this morning's mouse was - so tiny and neat. It was dark grey. Its little eyes were half-closed, I guess with fright.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

You took away his TOY!!! Damn you, evil human! *shakes paw*

-Josie

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Hello Kate,

Your cats are gorgeous. I want an orange cat like Timothy (I had a Timmie, but he was black and white, and my best mate for a long time).

Timmie wasn't much of hunter, more a sleeper. Also the only cat I've ever met with a curly tail. The next cat, a grey Burmese named Sooty (blame my mother), was quite a hunter. She brought in mice, Anticinus (small mice like marsupials with really sharp teeth, I have the scars yet), rats from the neighbours shed (almost as big as her), baby rabbits, lizards, birds (once a baby wren), a feathertailed glider and snakes (small snakes, that's a great story). We locked her in the laundry at night, but she escaped sometimes. As she got older, she slowed down. She also realised that she got more praise for the rats than the birds,so she concentrate on rats. The mice got free in the house regularly, and one got electrocuted, in the stove. Another one slept in my parents bed with Mum when she was ill. Remind me, when I see you again to tell you the story about the snake.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Having observed our family's grey tabby Arthur killing the vacuum cleaner wand with earth-shattering blows, I believe any cat could destroy any snake.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Depends on the cat, and the snake. Sooty was a Burmese, and therefore small and light. A cat could take out a snake, but most cats die of snalebite because they play with their prey, the snake gets mad and strikes. And a snake striking is faster than a cat All this information came via a vet I used to be friends with, and she was a country vet who'd had to treat a lot of snakebitten cats and dogs.