![]() ![]() The problem is that Ruby continues to appear through the cat flap with a mouse dangling from her mouth. It’s a month since she started doing this and the mouse population now seems to be under control. She’s been worried about doing this: could she accidentally poison Ruby? She’s had to put the poison inside cardboard tubes so that the mice can reach it, but it’s beyond Ruby’s reach. Ironically, Ruby’s dried cat food has been one of the targets of the mice, with small holes nibbled out of the base of the bag.Īmanda has had to resort to modern methods of pest control, laying mouse bait. Amanda knows that this is happening because she can hear the scurrying of their little feet, and there are occasional raids on food stores. But when Ruby lets go of the live mice inside Amanda’s house, the mice are stuck indoors, and they end up making new nests in Amanda’s home, behind the skirting boards and under the floor. There’s nothing wrong with this when she’s outside: the mice can scuttle back to their nests to lick their wounds and recover. When she gets bored of playing with the mice, she just lets them run away. Most cats get tired of playing with a mouse eventually, and at that stage, the dispatch the small creature by a swift bite to the back of the neck. ![]() Ruby never kills the miceĪn unusual aspect of Ruby’s passion for mice is that she never kills them. It’s something that most modern owners would prefer their pets not to do: the traumatised bodies of birds and mice don’t fit well with our idea of an ordered, peaceful home. I’m often asked why cats bring their prey back into the house: it’s something to do with bringing trophies back to the family. Amanda is horrified when this happens, and she does her best to take the mice off Ruby, releasing them outside while locking Ruby up until they’ve made their escape. She also enjoys bringing them back into the house through the cat flap, so that she can play with them some more in the company of her owners. She carries the live mice around by the scruff of the neck, occasionally dropping them to play with them, batting them backwards and forwards with her front paws, then picking them up again in her mouth. She waits patiently outside their nests, pouncing on them as soon as they appear. Then she’ll pounce, grabbing the feather in her mouth.ĭespite her love of the feathery toy, she’s shown no interest in hunting birds, but she has learned to enjoy hunting mice. If Amanda dangles a string with a feather on the end in front of Ruby, she’ll stalk it, crouching along the ground as she moves slowly towards it. Amanda can see this from the way that she plays with toys. And thanks to the cat, 3 year old Ruby, Amanda’s home developed a problem with residential mice. She didn’t have a problem with mice, but she did have a cat. ![]() Unfortunately for Amanda, the reverse situation has taken place. If anyone is unlucky enough to get a mouse or rat infestation in their home, one of the obvious suggestions to control the pests is to “get a cat”. ![]()
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