Saturday morning we had caught three mice that they had brought in through the cat door... and that was before 8:30AM!!! That's not even counting the dead one I caught Skwaky with at 3AM, the night before!
It was after I found a live, hiding mouse that I decided the cat door was officially closed for good. This was getting bad. No more... "I'll open it just for a little bit". The cats were clearly out of control.
Five minutes after the door was shut down I heard a cat trying to get in and couldn't believe I saw this!!
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I was so MAD! This poor little bird. :( Look closely... my evil cat Velcro is LICKING HIS LIPS! I'll just have to keep them inside and accept that I will forever have a litter box I guess. I can't have them killing everything that moves. We've never had this problem before and we've even lived by fields before. Maybe German rodents are just dumb.
Currently we have set up the cat door to let them out - but not in. So, yes, I'm aware that they are not prevented from killing... only prevented from returning their kill to me as a token of their love. Right now that's the best I can do.
The cats can get out, but have to bang their head on it to get back in... which they do. It's like them knocking on the door. We unlock the door and let them in after verifying their mouths are empty.
We looked online for any magical devices to prevent them from catching things. Bells, Beeping collars, even this ridiculous cat bib that is just like a bib that a baby would wear. It's supposed to drag on the ground and make sounds as they "stalk" their prey. Dumb cats.
I read that bells don't work.
The beeping sound every seven seconds from TWO cat collars would drive me nuts.
The bibs are just plain silly looking. You would have to sedate my cat to get him to wear that happily. With the bib on they wouldn't even fit through the cat door!
I will look into kitty counseling maybe. Maybe there is a "How to Tame your Inner Tiger" course I could send them too.
In the meantime I'm the best mouse catcher there is. :) ...but I will be getting some live traps just in case there is one that is too fast. Paul and I tried for HOURS to catch one the other night. It hid everywhere, under the couch, in the curtains, in between the radiator thingys... We probably looked ridiculous jumping around when it ran too close to us, bowls and brooms in hand. We never caught him. We barricaded the two doors leading to the rest of the house and went to bed. I woke up to the mouse sitting in the hall, staring at me. Luckily I never go anywhere without my trusty mouse catching bowl. He sat perfectly still and let me put the bowl on him... It was like he was ready to be taken outside. :)
- Maybe a pet mouse would make the cats bored with them.
- Maybe I should get more toys for the cats so they don't want to pounce on live animals.
- Maybe in a few weeks they would have caught all the slow, dumb mice in the yard and only the smart, quick ones will reproduce and make "smart and fast" baby mice that my cats can't catch.
- Maybe I could drug my cats with cat nip... Would that make them feel more relaxed?
All I know is a three month vacation to the states just got complicated! We'd come home to a hundred rodents and feather piles all over!
3 comments:
If you could install a cat flap that only goes into one room, and a room that is easily 'hosed down' then my hunch is that the darlings will stop the overt bringing home the kill after a period of time. And their bloodbath would be contained in one room while they were getting it out of their system.
Knowing the scores of cats we have had, I notice that cats sometimes do this as an anxiety or over excitement reaction...but that it's never for ever.
We still get lots of offerings on the doorsteps though, but what we did was to go outside with them and go nutz praising them very loudly and saying thankyou etc and then they would be satisfied and eat the whole thing up.
Someone once told me that when cats do this it is because they are trying to show their owners how to do it, because they believe we need help as they don't see us to be very capable. They can just go get food from the environment and we have to drive to the mall and queue!
Three month to States? Waaa? When?
Z ;)
I have had cat flap problems too - but more with raccoons getting into the house to eat the cat food, climbing all over the kitchen and, well, excreting while standing on top of the kitchen door. Bleaching the whole kitchen at 11pm is not my idea of fun. My theory is that raccoons are magnetic, because my cats wore collars with little magnets on them which would allow the door to open...
Anyway, during my problems and subsequent internet searches, I came upon a team who made a cat face scanner - the steel door would NOT open if the cat had something in its mouth. I kid you not.
I didn't know your cats were even that smart.
I really hope that the mice are gone and nowhere to be seen when I come to visit!
Buy them toys that look like mice!
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