Cleaning up the crime scene

Have you ever come home to find your cat standing in the middle of what appears to be a serial killer's crime scene?

For quick cleanup, I recommend using a grocery plastic bag as a glove (sometimes you just have to say "plastic" not "paper") to collect the remains. Do try to get to it before your cat decides to juggle the corpse into the drapes.

Then, quickly before the blood dries, sprinkle the stains with hydrogen peroxide. It will foam, turn white and miraculously bleach the stain away. Pretty good for less than a dollar a pint. Put the cap on tightly but don't expect it to remain active for more than a couple of months.

DISCLAIMER ---- DISCLAIMER ---- DISCLAIMER ---- DISCLAIMER

Although hydrogen peroxide is an "oxygen bleach" and one of the mildest stain removers, it is ALWAYS advisable to test it on a non-visible portion of your carpet or rug before flaming me.

Thankfully no little "critters" have entered this house, but I have 2 cats that would make some fast work on them!

We were infested by mice before we got Radar (I gave in to Nate's demands to get a cat because one of my budgies was horrendously injured and died due to 'rodent attack' but if any good came out of that horrendous incident it is that I now realise I adore cats)

He caught 2 while he was still a little kitten, which were removed from him while he was still torturing them (and had their suffering ended in a humane fashion) and we haven't had any dare venture in since - so I have never had to deal with the disemboweled aftermath - thank goodness!

Oddly, I never had mice before I had cats. Earlier this week, I was sitting with two cats on my lap (this takes a recliner), when I saw a motion out of the corner of my eye. Kirby "Prince of the Redwoods" made a soaring 6 foot leap and landed on the mouse. My other cat Johnny Depp and I helped him chase it around the house. I pulled furniture back and shouted encouragment to the mousers. In the end, I caught it with some rubber tipped "grabbers" and tossed him, live and well, out into the garden.

Apparently, Kirby had misplaced the mouse earlier and had been keeping an eye out for it.

You ain't lived until the scene of the crime is your bed - and you are still in bed...

Originally Posted by gemlady

You ain't lived until the scene of the crime is your bed - and you are still in bed...

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Ewww....luckily the biggest thing my hunters have caught recently was a beetle that lost it's way

Some rex breeders I know moved into an old farm house complete with mice. And the "instinct" kicked in. Even tho the rexes had never been outside, they remembered their ancestors in the barn - they left the breeders several little bodies in the morning by their bedroom door!

Originally Posted by gemlady

You ain't lived until the scene of the crime is your bed - and you are still in bed...

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We lived in the country and had a lot of mice.

Mine tucked one under my husband's pillow one day and he didn't find it until about 3AM when the smell woke him up. I wish I had a camera for the look on his face and I'm so happy it wasn't under mine!!

They tried to tuck one in my briefcase one day but it fell out as I was closing up the flap to take it to work. Wouldn't that have been fun to get to work, open up the briefcase to pull out papers and have a victim fall out on the conference table?

oh my gosh, this thread is so funny I'm lucky in that I have no mice, but my mom's cats leave present on their doorstep every once in awhile

I still see ridiculous postings stating that a cat will never learn to hunt if it's mother doesn't teach him. My cat Vivekat was a city cat for five years before moving to Santa Cruz. My neighbor was a veterinarian who have five cats. Vivekat watched them hunt for a year. When they moved, she inherited their territories and became a frequent hunter.

I found my current cats at an animal shelter when they were too young for anyone to teach them anything. Now in the Mendocino redwoods with the warm season beginning, they bring in "kill" daily. (Lot's of hydrogen peroxide.)

Luckily for me...so far (knock on wood), i haven't been presented with anything bigger then the remains of a house centipede...usually horribly mangled and abused with no legs left. We did have a serious discussion after one was left still twitching on my pillow....I requested that Rambo and Lucky go ahead and finish eating the bug...and that i will be very proud of them without have to actually see the death in progress!

Yesterday I found the cats huddled curiously near the back door. I discovered a three foot garter snake who had wriggled the first couple of inches into the space between the sliding glass doors trying to get OUT. I was able to pull it loose with my rubber tipped grippers. (If it had gotten between the doors, which are sealed on each end with weather stripping, I might never have retrieved him.)

I spoke sternly to the cats, did not let them play with it, and took the squirming snake out into the bushes for release a hundred yards from the house.

It would, however, have been a sight to see: a cat wrestling a three-foot snake through the cat flap.

I used to have mice, which is why I went to the Humane Society and adopted Hammie.

I got real sick of setting those snap-traps and coming home to find a split-in-half mouse. Once, it was not dead all the way but trapped. Icky.

Ever since I adopted Hammie, no more mice!

No crime scenes, either; any bug that enters our house is fair game. With 8 cats (4 of whom are avid hunters), it is a very suicidal bug indeed. No clean up!

The only 'crime scenes' I come home to are finding puked up hairballs in the weirdest places, turds that have fallen off after the cat has run away from the litter box, or something knocked over that I thought was not attractive to a cat.

I give my cat Kitiara toy mice to play with. I have to pull the little leather tails off or she eats them. I had given her a new package full one morning. That evening she strolled into the office where I was sitting on the floor organizing papers. I noticed that I had missed popping the tail off the mouse she had in her mouth. Then she spat it in my lap and it ran. There's still a dent in my ceiling where my head hit it.

I'm not scared of mice. I used to keep rodents as pets but I was about to pull the tail off of that little guy!

The mouse went into a closet and though myself, three cats and one Springer Spaniel hunted for hours we never did find it. We get them from time to time but I'm very thankful they aren't a regular problem. Though with three cats, one of whom can open doors, I don't think they'd stand much of a chance!

I came home yesterday to find my 11 month old kitten eating a lizard on the kitchen floor. She's also killed a snake, countless bugs and butterflies and brought a live barn swallow into the house. Luckily, I was able to get it back outside unharmed.

The most unusual thing any of my cats have ever brought in was a full grown screech owl. My cat brought it upstairs and that one was also able to be caught and released unharmed.

The cat proof fence is great until the killing season begins. We have to be on constant lookout for unexpected "prezzies."

Cally

Originally Posted by mistercatworks

Yesterday I found the cats huddled curiously near the back door. I discovered a three foot garter snake who had wriggled the first couple of inches into the space between the sliding glass doors trying to get OUT. I was able to pull it loose with my rubber tipped grippers. (If it had gotten between the doors, which are sealed on each end with weather stripping, I might never have retrieved him.)

I spoke sternly to the cats, did not let them play with it, and took the squirming snake out into the bushes for release a hundred yards from the house.

It would, however, have been a sight to see: a cat wrestling a three-foot snake through the cat flap.

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Mine also surrounded a snake that got inside my house. My technique? Very long BBQ tongs to remove it from the house. The cats were not happy when I took away their toy.

Nature Clean Pet Stain & Odour Remover.
http://www.grassrootsstore.com/index...ROD&ProdID=255

This cleaner is the best I have come across. Works great on anything that is organic, we have used it on Pet stains (urin, feces, puke, blood (from clipping too far on the nail) etc...) also works great on red wine.

So far we haven't had any issues with bleaching out colour.

One of my abyssinians is an expert in catching mice. He sits and waits for days in front of the stove. He always catches them when I can witness his glory. My husband always has to take care of the mouse after Dion catches it, Dion plays with the mice after he catches them....

I have had my cats bring home mice, moles, birds, snakes and many a flying bugs but the worst was a large rat.

I was standing in my kitchen at my old apartment and I see out of the corner of my eye our cat Nemo come rushing out of my bedroom with what I thought was a squirrel or something. After I followed her into the living room I realized it was a rat. A big sewer living rat.

I am so glad my son was home or I don't know what I would have done. We yelled at her and she let it go. I threw a towel to my son and he covered it up but claimed it was still moving. We used the dust pan and shoved it into a garbage bag with the towel and all and threw it out in the trash.

I swear that rat was as big if not bigger than the cat. I don't know where she got it at. She must have jumped through my bedroom window to bring inside.

On a lighter note when we only had Gizmo we had a small mouse problem. She was not the greatest hunter and she still is lazy. I was getting ready to feed the dogs one day. I had one of their bowls and reached into the 40lb dog food bag to scoop some into the bowl when I felt a scratching on my hand.

I freaked and let go of the bowl and pulled my hand out as a mouse went flying off my hand and into the air. I was screaming and jumping about. My son thought I was being attacked.

Now I was never afraid of mice and I am still not but that little scratching on my hand at the bottom of the dog food bag scared the daylights out of me. I think I jumped two feet in the air.

My son thought it was so funny he planted a fake fur mouse in the bag several days later. As I scooped up the food there was a big fluff ball in the middle. At first I gasped but then it hit me that the mouse was really white and then I realized it was the cat toy.

Gotta love teenage boys

Too funny! I have found evidence of a "crime scene" as well. I will spare the details. :-) One time, I found live evidence in my toilet though. Yup, I kid you not. My cats apparently chased a mouse into my bathroom. The mouse climbed a wicker basket next to the toilet and apparently fell in while running for his life. I got up in the morning and thankfully looked before "I went". There in the toilet bowl was a mouse, very cold, very tired, and barely able to still keep it's head above water. And yes, I rescued the mouse! I did not just flush the toilet... :-)