How cute.........

Went to feed the outside cats this morning - dry food in the Jeep, a tin of wet in my pocket. Reached for the handle, and right under it, someone had deposited a dead mouse. I suspect Splash or maybe Tippy as Jack was inside, and Zab usually eats what he kills. I am sure that the cat responsible was thinking a gift in return for real food would be a nice gesture. Now I really am used to kitty gifts, have found them lined up in the tractor bucket when Da Lip still went out and hunted, on the doorstep, heaped in a food dish, left on the step into the barn, and even in feed buckets but never on a vehicle bumper until today. At least they are doing their jobs

Aw...isn't that cute? They put it right where they knew you would see it.

Our Clyde sometimes brings back a live shrew, which is an Event with a capital E. For those of you on the wrong side of the pond, the main difference between a mouse and a shrew -- at least the most important difference at 2.30am -- is that a frightened shrew will squeak loudly and incessantly, at roughly the same pitch and volume as a smoke detector. Another important difference is that shrews taste unpleasant to cats, so they get played with and then discarded, rather than eaten.

A few nights ago, Clyde came home with a mouse that was already dead, a case usually dealt with by me fetching a small plastic bag, using it to pick up the creature like one of those things some people use to pick up dog poo. What was strange was that Clyde had only been out for half an hour. The other odd thing was that when Clyde threw the corpse into the air, it landed with a thud. Turned out it was sopping wet and had obviously drowned.

The next day, one of our neighbours was telling my wife about how he'd found a drowned mouse and threw it out, and in the morning it had mysteriously disappeared...

So there you have it. Clyde is a cheapskate.

Originally Posted by sk_pacer

Went to feed the outside cats this morning - dry food in the Jeep, a tin of wet in my pocket. Reached for the handle, and right under it, someone had deposited a dead mouse.

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Whoever it was knew exactly what s/he was doing!

Originally Posted by rewboss

For those of you on the wrong side of the pond, the main difference between a mouse and a shrew -- at least the most important difference at 2.30am -- is that a frightened shrew will squeak loudly and incessantly, at roughly the same pitch and volume as a smoke detector. Another important difference is that shrews taste unpleasant to cats, so they get played with and then discarded, rather than eaten.

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I'm constantly taking shrews away from the cats. Not only do they squeak/screech and taste bad, they stink! They're incredible climbers, though. We have a bird feeder hanging from a pergola, and the shrews climb the pergola to get the seeds. They'll climb the grape vine on the house, too (one storey up).

Awww yep I think they do bring them as gifts,just a thankyou for your kindness.x

Lynxx never believed in sharing the mice he caught Midnight did bring 1 mouse over to me. I screamed and he ran under the bed with it. So I don't know if he was going to give it to me as a gift or not. Luna might catch a mouse, but I think Midnight will take it away from her

Originally Posted by rewboss

The next day, one of our neighbours was telling my wife about how he'd found a drowned mouse and threw it out, and in the morning it had mysteriously disappeared...

So there you have it. Clyde is a cheapskate.

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That's the best thing I have read all day.