Kitty catches a mouse - does what with it?

My little girl caught a mouse last night. (I'm v. proud of her). She had it in her mouth and wanted to go off by herself. It got away a couple of times and she would chase and re-catch. The mouse finally found a good hiding place underneath something heavy. Smidge exclaimed how she needed to get to it - meowed over and over again with such urgency and expression! so I dragged the object out of the way and .....accidentally killed it.

Since it wasnt moving anymore she didnt have a whole lot of interest anymore - even though the smell was driving her nutty - even after I removed it.

I'm a little nervous about what she will do to it if I'm not around. WIll she play with it until it dies? Will she eat it?! (I really hope not).

What do your cats do when they catch a mouse?

They normally leave it on our driveway or lawn, so by the time we see it it's already been driven/stepped on so many time's it's beyond recognition

Is it bad that your post made me laugh K J ?

My gang of 4 all spent one cold winter evening fighting over a mouse who was looking for a warm place. It was the middle of the night and I had taken Benedryl or I would have rescued it right away. After listening to the cats hiss and growl for 30 minutes my husband went to save the mouse. He said there wasn't a mark on it! In the case of my well feed indoor cats, the mouse was a freaking cool toy.

Interesting side note: Cats are one of the few animals who will kill for fun. (Humans are another.)

Originally Posted by CDubbie

Is it bad that your post made me laugh K J ?

Click to expand...

Of course, it'll make you laugh until you step smack dab in a rotting pile of shrew I actually have a pic of my RB cat Rosie with a giant rat.

Originally Posted by K.J.

Of course, it'll make you laugh until you step smack dab in a rotting pile of shrew

Click to expand...

No doubt

Nikita plays with it catching it, carrying it around in her mouth only to spit it out again into a fun re-catching place (which is usually my handbag or my shoes *sigh*).

She does this again and again until the mouse escapes or dies from exhaustion and fright. Yeah it's not very pretty.

If I'm around I tend to try to get the mouse and let it go outside in the garden (yeah I know that's rather futile)

Nikita's an indoor cat but there are mice infestations to some degree in pretty much all the older buildings in Edinburgh. It's one of the reasons I got a cat in the first place.

She keeps the mice out pretty well though so it's not a problem I have to deal with really. They can smell her and keep out mostly.

Our barn cats would "tease" the mouse awhile before killing it. Sometimes they ate it, sometimes not. My indoor ones never really have had the opportunity. But I'm sure they would catch/release for awhile.

Probably not really eat it. Most cats unless they are taught by mom that its "food" would only kill it and not eat it.

Originally Posted by CDubbie

I'm a little nervous about what she will do to it if I'm not around. WIll she play with it until it dies? Will she eat it?! (I really hope not).

What do your cats do when they catch a mouse?

Click to expand...

It depends. Sometimes Zane will bring it to me, and I flush it. Sometimes he eats it, as nature intended. (That is why Humans domesticated Cats in the first place--to clear their homes and barns of vermin.) I refer to him as "my furry mousetrap."

Aristotle plays with it, then kills it and puts it under the fridge to mummify. It extends the play value.

Other cats have eaten or just played with a mouse until it drops dead of fright. One cat, Smoki, actually had a mouse that killed itself. It fainted and she poked it until it came to. Then the mouse would run at top speed into the kitchen cabinet kick space and knock itself out. Smoki would retrieve it, poke it until it came to and it would run right back into the kick space and knock itself out. This happened several times over the course of an hour. Eventually it wouldn't come to.

ok pookie caught a mouse the other day (inside the house!) we have never had mice before...my brother went outside the other day and left the back door open so im thinking thats how it got in...the slot wasnt big enough for pookie to get out but it was big enough for a mouse to come in...and pookie never goes outside and shes big and well fed and pampered so im guessing she didnt know what to do with it so what she did was she brought it up to me but the problem is...she didnt kill it first! so as soon as she dropped it for me to have it got up and ran away! her and i chased it downstairs only to lose it...i havent seen it and im wondering where it went..my mom thinks she played with it so much that it went off and died..because thats what she does to waterbugs and the like in the house...she plays with them and they run away, only to succumb to death frm injuries or fright...i dont want a live mouse in the house (a dead one either!)...she gave up on it so im thinking it either escaped to outside or it died somewhere...as soon as the ordeal was over i petted pookie and laughed saying "you fat cat, youre supposed to kill the mouse first!"...it ran under a pile of carpets and junk near the front door when it ran downstairs and i rattled the carpets but the mouse didnt come out so im thinking it slinked away before i rattled the carpets...im thinking it died but i want to catch it before it rots and smells...where would a mouse hide if it knew it was going to die and im 100% sure she didnt eat it because it ran away and i was there when she (and i) lost sight of it and she hasnt been looking for it...im wondering what happened to the mouse and how do i find it before it starts to rot

There was an old Kilban or Far Side cartoon that showed two trucks, one labled "John's Small, Flightless Birds", the other "Tom's Assorted Small Rodents" crashed into one another, and inside the picture window of a house a big fat cat plastered against the glass.