Cats: a solution to Petsmart's and all our rodent problems

[imenja]

I have no desire to start a flame war here. Instead, I'd like to offer a solution to rodent problems we all may be able to agree on. Get a good mousing cat for your home, and Petsmart can let them roam their stores at night. Now it has to be a good mouser--not a sweet useless (except for the love he provides) kitty like my Persian (a former stray whom I found declawed). If you know someone who has one of those cats that catch so many birds the owner has to put three bells around it's neck, get one of it's kittens.
The cat will kill a few rodents but the rest will quickly take off, looking for safer housing elsewhere.
Vegetarians: you will have to feed the cat food made from meat products. They are not vegetarians and become unhealthy if forced to become so. Moreover, they will go searching for birds and bunnies and bring them home.
Cats: a far more natural solution than traps of any kind. They also are, in my humble opinion, the most highly evolved life form on the planet. Who else has convinced another race, seemingly superior, to house and feed them without generally requiring any work in exchange?

[MsTryska]

1. You know what's funny?

My one cat is a dedicated birder, but not a mouser. or a bugger for that matter.


he seems to have a distinct aversion to mammalian flesh.

[China_cat]

2. And we have one

who is a sweet lover and lazy and all the things you wouldn't associate with a hunter...and she regularly brings home kills of rats, birds, squirrels. Once she brought home half a snake.

[MsTryska]

5. My snugglebunny has never hunted.

he's the eternal baby. I think because he's never caught himself anything bigger than a waterbug. I honestly don't know if he could bird or mouse.

He was too young to watch the other one bird, so i'm curious.

he's real good at pouncing on dried leaves tho.

[Taxloss]

7. Well, people who love to hunt can be fat and lazy.

Think of so very many NRA Republicans. I don't see how it should be different for cats.

NB I'm not implying your cat is Republican.

[MsTryska]

9. I think my birder is a republican.

he's greedy, and he's selfish.


he's also got an inordinate passion for structure and loves to follow the rules. (his personal set of rules, mind you). He also likes to have long discussions with me when my other cat has broken one of these rules.

[imenja]

10. cats insist on order

They are extremely habitual. I notice that if I'm not doing what he expects me to do at a certain time of day, he gets upset and starts meowing: if I sleep too late, if I don't sit on the couch in the evening (obviously so I can pet him), if a door is closed when he believes it should be open! They like to rule everything. So you may be right about the Republican influence. But mine is so full of love and affection, he's got to be Dem.

[MsTryska]

13. Yeah he loves structure!

but i also think he migth be a virgo.

the younger one - he doesn't care about structure so much.

[Taxloss]

11. Well, you have my sympathies.

You might like this:

[MsTryska]

12. Hmm..good point.

maybe he is a democrat for all his love of rules and greediness.


he does also have a bizarre sense of fairness.

especially where food and his little brother are concerned.


the other day, the little one was having soem issues and had to stay in my room for a while (he gets constipated and needs ot be left alone near the litterbox when the time comes).

well it was dinnertime, so i prepared their meals and left one dish on the counter and went to feed the republican.

well he wouldn't eat. not until his brother was ready to eat, and they could eat together. he even let his brother have soem of his food while i was getting his brother's bowl ready.


that doesn't sound very republican, actually does it?

[imenja]

15. they don't like to eat alone

I have to be in the room with him in order for my cat to eat.

[MsTryska]

19. hee...unless it's kibble.

then not only will he eat alone, he makes sure no one else gets any either.

[imenja]

17. Dogs and Bill O'Reilly

I love your cartoon. I have a question about dogs. Why is it that dogs always want to smell a woman's crotch, at least mine? (I shower daily) I like the animals, I really do, but I draw the line at sexual assault (which I swear my sister's dog tried once to do to me). Could they be related to Bill O'Reilly?

[Taxloss]

26. Well, I have no idea.

But, for most dogs, if they raise their head, it will be around crotch level.

I wouldn't worry about it. They're randy beggars, and they're not known for being socially inhibitive.

[imenja]

4. really? females as better hunters?

It usually goes together. They are usually hunters or not. I had a cat that wouldn't let a fly survive in the house, let alone a mouse.
My current cat just looks as the varmints as they enter. I had a huge tree frog on the wall one night and he did nothing. No amount of telling him to start earning his keep mattered.
My aunt's cat is the one who wears three bells, but even then the birds don't stand a chance. She lies in wait and pounces on them. She was the mother of my hunter mentioned above. It's definitely hereditary. It's either in their blood or not.
I believe females may be better hunters than males. Anyone else know if that is true? That's my sense from my own observations of cats but is hardly scientific.
(I LOVE kitties and my "useless" Persian is the best :loveya:)

[China_cat]

20. We had a cat once

named Pokey , rescued from an older woman who was going to have him put down because she was moving into a retirement home and couldn't take him. We had him for a couple years when we moved into a house that had been empty for some time. Up until then, Pokey was really moving if he opened his eyes while he ate...really lived up (or down) to his name.

One night he came to us with something in his mouth. When we asked to see it he put it down and we found it was a live mouse. He hadn't even killed it, just caught it. The mouse, astonished to still be alive, let alone free, booked for a hole in the floor and disappeared. Pokey looked so disappointed.

The next morning I awoke to a blood-curdling scream coming from my room mate's room. Sure that she was in some kind of serious trouble, I grabbed a chair and raced into her room only to find that Pokey had corrected his mistake during the night. And then some.

He had caught and killed about 10 mice and lined them up beside my room mate's bed. Perfectly lined up, each with one paw chewed off. My room mate had gotten up and stepped in them in her bare feet.

[imenja]

21. a born-again mouser

He finally moved to a place where he could get to work. Must have been a quick learner.

[SoCalDem]

27. Females who cannot hunt, do not sucessfullly raise young..(in the wild)

A mother cat must be able to hunt , or her kittens will die, so nature has provided the female with those skills.. Males (usually on their own) only need to hunt when THEY are hungry..

Mother cats can have 4 or more hungry bellies to fill ...

[Warpy]

16. When I first moved to this old house, I did find signs of rodents

I've long considered my two pampered cats useless as anything but companions, but I haven't seen a single sign of rodents since the first week I moved in. They may not catch and kill them, but they do seem to have encouraged them to live elsewhere.

Health inspectors in Boston must've had sore necks from looking the other way. Many, if not most stores had a store cat. Some had the run of the store, others were sequestered in storage areas.

Given a choice between finding a cat hair or a mouse turd, I'll take the cat hair every time.

[MARALE]

3. I have some cats that catch moles!

They do it for the fun of it, because they don't eat them. They are great mousers and catch everything. They are outside cats that live on our farm, but are very friendly. If anybody wants one, PM me and I will let you know when we have another litter.

[imenja]

6. hey, a source!

Awesome! Maybe people will take you up on that.

[elehhhhna]

8. Here in Tx the occasional massive cockroach enters the house.

I don't know it, though, until Puff leaves it leggless and dead as a gift next to my side of the bed. (Good with Gekkos, too.)

[cmf]

14. My mom's cat is an excellent hunter

She's always caught birds and bunnies outdoors, but they still got mice in the walls somehow. I guess she was only interested in the hunt outdoors.

[imenja]

18. yeah, you have to get the right one

All cats are definitely not created equal when it comes to hunting. My view is that the best bet is to get a kitten born from a proved hunter, such as from the poster above who offered future kittens.

[Cleita]

22. Not the best solution.

I have one of those mousers, but he doesn't limit his kills to just rodents. There are also other critters he goes after and quite honestly every mole or gopher he kills creates a vacancy in my yard and a new one moves in. The same thing happens with indoor mice in warehouses.

The best way I have found to prevent gophers from eating my plants is to plant them in chicken wire baskets until they become too woody to be palatable. I suggest that Petsmart figure out a way to place barriers between the mice and the food attraction for them also.

[imenja]

23. you'd think that stuff would be sealed anyway

Imagine buying some pet food that mice have been digging through and dropping feces in. It makes you wonder what goes on there.

[Xithras]

24. Heh, my cat is an evil mouse torturer

I one watched him spend twenty minutes swatting a mouse around before finally killing it. He jumped on it, kicked it, threw it several times, kept pinning it down and biting it, but didn't finally kill it until it was a bloody mess that could barely move.

Cat's are natures way of dealing with mice, but I'd hardly call them the humanitarian solution.

[imenja]

25. no, I suppose not, but it is nature

Some kill them quickly. All don't follow the Abu Ghraib method of mousing.

[Sterling]

28. Better than a glue trap...

For some one who does not place this kind of thing high on your "list" you have managed to spend two days arguing about it. lol.

[jdj]

29. wouldn't work

as PetSmart sells birds, reptiles, rabbits and fish, and exotic ones at that.

I bet mice would be low on the list of a cat let loose in a store full of the above.

[imenja]

34. I thought I came up with a reasonable solution

I always opt for solution over ill will. Being unpleasant accomplishes nothing.

[sakabatou]

30. My cat was f-ing lazy

There was a mouse in my room so we out the cat in there. Helooked around and just left. But out dog did catch the mouse, though (he's a mouser).

[LondonReign2]

31. I don't understand

How is the really annoying musical CATS going to help PetSmart?

:)

[slutticus]

32. I want one of these...

[imenja]

35. we've had a few roam around Palm Beach County

not a good idea for a pet, beautiful as they are.

[Tacos al Carbon]

33. Curiously

Cats are the only creatures on earth besides humans that are known to hunt purely for sport ... Just think it's interesting. My kitties are indoor cats, though one is a born hunter and the other one ... well, the poor thing probably wouldn't do too well on his own ...

[Pierre Trudeau]

36. my cat is 17 years old....

... and he still catches mice!

I'd rather he didn't eat them in the apartment, but I can't help but be proud of him for still being able to nab'em.