Gross warning: dogs, feral cats and rodents

[momofmany]

Our feral cat Lucky caught himself a field rodent this afternoon. He did his usual routine - take it close to the house and play with it until he is ready for the kill.

I don't notice that Lucky has caught something and take Spike out for his afternoon walk. He runs up to Lucky and grabs the rodent in his mouth. Spike is part bird dog so he doesn't bite, doesn't swallow, just grabs it gently and holds it in his mouth.

Normally Spike is very good with the "drop it" command. But today, perhaps because it was still alive and wiggling, he choses to ignore it. I can see the tail and feet hanging out his mouth and Spike is just standing there with a very confused look on his face. No forceful use of the drop it command is working with him.

OK, so had to do what I did with him as a puppy - have to grab his mouth top and bottom and open it up so it can fall out. There's no good place to grab without touching the poor creature. The rodent falls out, now suffocated, Lucky runs up to it, gives it a big sniff (ew, dog breath), and gives Spike an annoyed look. An easy afternoon meal wasted.

OK, call me squeamish, but I did go in and wash my hands for about 5 minutes. The joys of dog ownership!

 

[pjk5900]

ewwwwwwwwwwww

 

[janemary]

Lucky you

I had to do a similar rescue mission once...

My hampster had a really nice cage with all the tubing and cool attachments, he somehow chewed the latch off the top of his loft and escaped.. next thing I know my siamese is walking around with a ball of fluff in his mouth, I remember suddenly putting two and two togther and realizing that my hampster had escaped and that simon had him! I didn't have to pry the poor little hampster from his mouth, thankfully, Simon dropped the hampster on command.

The hampster had no scratches or wounds.. which makes me wonder why simon didn't hurt him??.. They were always best buds though, they would sit nose to nose (with the cage protecting the hampster) for hours, and simon would chase the hampster when he was in his hampster ball.. I guess maybe they developed a bond

Anyone ever have anything similar happen ?

 

[flisssweetpea]

No, but you were very wise. When my daughter was about 12, she found a mangled mouse on the school field and tried to rescue it. She was sad because the poor thing had died. Even worse when she broke out with a fungal infection afterwards (ringworm) from the mouse. You were very wise to wash your hands!!

 

[dragonlady]

Icky Icky Icky

 

[fwan]

hm, i had a hamster but i didnt know about the cool tubing cagey thing so i put him in a huge plastic tub box but silly me put his house in the corner and he used to always jump out a night.
One day he jumped out i heard him around the house for a month but he just dissapeared.


I might be cruel but today i really wanted to buy a live mouse form the pet store and give it to teufel! i dont know why i had that idea because i really like mices.

Luckly i gave up on that idea when i decided to go and take a look at fishies. and was very fascinated by the prices because they were so cheap and had a bigger variety than my own pet store.

Well now this was off the topic, but in australia my cats used to eat possums. we always found their tails and fur on the ground in the mornings ewwwwww

 

[wellingtoncats]

Oh Yucky! I couldn't quite understand, but was it dead after all that?

 

[momofmany]

It was alive when he grabbed it, but probably suffocated when he held it in his mouth, so it was lieing still when it fell out on the ground. Poor Lucky gave me the most mournful look when he realized that his catch was no longer edible.