Training for Cats

**Edwina's Secretary** · 04-01-2002, 01:50 PM

Yesterday my husband went into the garage (which is attached) and scared the mouse who went scampering across the floor.

He asked how it is we share our home with a cat and still have a mouse.

I reminded him that when we bought the house I said a mouse lived in the kitchen. Edwina would not go in the kitchen but they both (my husband and Edwina) said I was imagining things.

When we had the kitchen remodeled last year my "imagining" was confirmed. (Who DID they think was chewing on the soap???)

I bought play mice -- real-fur covered, some that make mice noises, paisley ones, life-sized ones, tiny ones, Holiday colored mice -- and tried to teach Edwina mousing skills.

Obviously, I was not successful.

Anyone know a training program I can get for her -- Perhaps "Mousing 101" or "Earning Your Keep as a Cat" or "Me Cat, You Mouse"???

**Heather Wallace** · 04-01-2002, 01:54 PM

Oh Edwina, you truley are a scaredy cat aren't you? Never mind eh!

**LoudLou** · 04-01-2002, 02:18 PM

Originally posted by Edwina's Secretary
.....Anyone know a training program I can get for her -- Perhaps "Mousing 101" or "Earning Your Keep as a Cat" or "Me Cat, You Mouse"???

My Meezers, The Beans... my husband thinks they are crossed with a Pointer. They WILL NOT hunt, but they will POINT as if to say, "The mice/rats are in there. That's where they live. DO something!"---- We had a "Guest"

in our last home. The Beans pointed out how the "Guest" was getting in but would DO NOTHING. When I met our guest eye to on the floor one night, and screamed at 180db in my husband's ear... He hired someone to come catch the "Guest". We are now in a new house and have had 1 "Guest"....Miss Mocha Bean pointed out his entrance and we closed it up....... IF you find a training program, please let us know, however I think my Meezers have decided to leave their careers in "Mouse Hunting" to Daddy the Great Provider.

**tuxluvr** · 04-01-2002, 02:23 PM

1. Cat must be hungry enough to prefer a rodent over the finely processed and flavored kibble (RARE trait in a housecat, unless accidentally locked in a closet for a few hours without owner awareness)
2. (And Ritz can attest first hand) Real live mice "wiggle" and cause the cat to spit it out in disgust, particularly if said cat is also very well fed (see #1)
3. If I kill and eat the toy, what will I have to play with? (Ritz's first encounter with a live field mouse was hilarious - but she was so excited she would go to the mouse come to me look at me with this wild eyed expression, like COOL TOY, mom!...then when we finally captured the critter and released its weary little butt (all Ritz managed to do after hours of play was slobber all over it and wear it to a panting frazzle). Afterward, she was looking for it the rest of the day.....MOM, WHERE'S THAT NEAT TOY! and refused to play with the limp, lifeless fake fur mousies

**momoffuzzyfaces** · 04-01-2002, 03:37 PM

3 of my 'guys' have captured a mouse. Nothing starts a chase in this house more than a mouse. There have been times I'd pick Leonardo up and hold him upside down and shake him to get him to drop the mouse. I'd shake him over a bucket because the mouse couldn't crawl out. Then I could let the dizzy mouse loose outside. In the case of the few mouse deaths we have experienced, it was a case of being played to death accidentally, murder was not intended. I can still see Luke gently patting a mouse who went to the Rainbow Bridge, trying to encourage it to continue their game of 'chase'. Chester has not yet seen a mouse. I am trying to keep it that way.

**Tubby & Peanut's Mom** · 04-01-2002, 11:16 PM

I don't know how you can "train" a cat to be a mouser. I thought it just came naturally. When Tubby was staying with my mom, there were quite a few entertaining mouse sessions. My mom lives with a woods on two sides of her house, and an old, old barn and fields on the other two sides, so it's no wonder she gets mice in the house. Tubby loved it. He would know when a mouse was around. He would sit and look at the cabinet door under the sink. When he did this, my mom would know there was a mouse around.

In this picture you can see that my mom has set a mouse trap out, but has also opened the door so Tubby could get at it if it emerged and made it past the trap.

In this picture, the mouse has gotten past all traps, except the big black one looming nearby.

Tubby would play with them until they were exhausted, but my mom would usually take it away from him before it was dead. She was worried he would push it to exhaustion and it would climb in the pipes and die and then start smelling. I could usually not watch because I felt sorry for the poor mouse. I know it's nature and all that, but Tubby would normally just play with it and the poor mouse was probably scared to death. Tubby had fun though.

I have many more mouse stories to tell, but it's late.....

**tuxluvr** · 04-02-2002, 05:02 AM

Ditto - this is Ritzy on "full mouse alert" - the mouse story above started with the mouse under the stove in the kitchen. Even though the mouse was long since disposed of, she sat and stared at this spot for another 2 hours!

**Edwina's Secretary** · 04-02-2002, 12:44 PM

So last night my husband invites Edwina to the garage. She claims she didn't leave anything in there. So he carries her to the garage. She claims she left something on the stove (right, Edwina cooking!) He's not buying it. SHe waits until his back is turned looking for the mouse and she makes a break for the door -- this time saying the phone is ringing.

Then when I get home she give me a story about the giant rat with glowing red eyes that she chased down in the garage.

I may not have a mouser but the next Sarah Bernhardt she is!

**wolflady** · 04-02-2002, 01:02 PM

LOL LOL Edwina, you're just too too cute! Mousing??! YUK!! Not a fashionable housecat like you!! NO WAY!!

I've noticed that the cats I took in off the streets are really in touch with their "wild hunter" nature. I'll never forget when our fat, lazy housecat Socks (lovingly brought in off the streets by yours truely 12 years ago) came upstairs from the basement...carrying a BIRD!! How the heck he managed to catch a bird in the basement is beyond me. It must have gotten in through the ventilation system or something. Still, it was a very strange site to see our converted, adored, plump, slow cat...carrying a bird up the stairs.
Marius is really in tune with his hunter cat nature too. Scooter isn't so much. He would more likely be scared of a mouse if he saw one!

**Ila** · 04-02-2002, 04:40 PM

Misty loves the challenge!! We live in the country it is nothing for us to get at least one mouse a winter in the house. I am sure the mice regret ever getting in our house. Misty is chasing the mouse till the mouse is so tired. We have come home from work and seen Misty just staring & not moving we know she has a mouse cornered. We have seen where she has played with them to there death before we got home from work. She is a mouser!!