When the Cats are Away Will the Mice Play?

While indulging in one of my favorite pastimes the other day, answering questions about kitty care, I ran across an interesting, thought-provoking inquiry. It was posted by a cat lover who has a great sense of humor and who has discovered one of the great mysteries about the feline species. I was able to virtually visualize her shocked facial expression following this inexplicable event occurred in her home. She wrote; "8 cats in the house and a mouse just ran across my foot? Did the mouse make a wrong turn or does somebody need to be fired?" Photo credit: http://courses.umass.edu/phys120/ However after giving considerable thought to her dilemma, I was compelled to answer with a rather dry response, devoid of jocularity since her question was obviously serious and of considerable concern. I felt I had to be supportive while giving credence to her understandable puzzlement. My goal was to put her mind giving her the benefit of my rather extensive experience with a similar issue. I do hope that I have covered all bases and that my answer was clear and concise. I leave this up to our dear readers to decide. "It appears that you have some cheeky mice visiting your abode! With 8 cats in residence, one would think that this brazen critter would have at least caught a "whiff" of feline presence, and had the sense to delay his sojourn into your domicile until late at to explore your premises in search of a meager meal and avoid a premature demise. Purrhaps Shasta, the elder kitty to whom you refer, may assist you in offering some object-oriented educational session with your kitties, as your retired, resident expert. She can share her former superlative hunting techniques, stressing the importance of keeping their "fur mom's" residence free of felonious field mice. After all since you feed your kitties, don't they owe this service? Of course I am positive that you have provided them an abundance of catnip mice upon which to practice! Please feel free to share this factual spine tingling tale based upon one of our cat's highly tuned instinctual drives and add it as part of your kitty undergraduate curriculum, "Effective and Easy Rodent Control". Of course, you have my complete purrmission. Once upon a time, my husband and I were owned by a blind seal point Siamese female named Yo Yo. At the time we lived in a rather small and insignificant house in a wooded area in the suburbs of New York City. When she was about 11 years old, with her eyesight failing from Feline Retinal Atrophy, to our surprise she developed a passion for hunting the tiny little critters that made their way into our home. One night I was awakened abruptly by a strange dream. I sat straight up in bed, beads of perspiration dripping from my forehead from terror. To my shock and dismay, I discovered a dead mouse in my hand! Yo Yo, my darling, now angel soul mate kitty, was sitting on my tummy wearing a Cheshire cat grin plastered on her face, as proud as punch. Her gift to me was not really appreciated at 3:30AM. I quickly awakened my husband with what must have been a blood curdling scream. He very kindly and swiftly gave the limp, lifeless furry creature burial at "sea". Trust me that the sound of the toilet flushing was very reassuring. This action however did not dissuade Yo Yo one iota from purrsuing her love for the hunt. We were, actually, very proud of her penchant for capturing intruders of the rodent species. Even though I do my best, I will never forget that terrifying dream and the ensuing events, with the memories of the sound of the flushing toilet emblazoned in my memory. Purrhaps this is a timely opportunity to change that popular nursery rhyme to "One Blind Cat! See how she hunts" in memory to our courageous and devoted kitty. What do you think? Leave a comment and share any further suggestions.