Gloves or colander?

Here's my story which was like a cartoon. We had just returned from a holiday and were eating a takeaway on our laps. A mouse ran across the room. I screamed and my takeaway went up in the air. Our cat pounced on the mouse and jumped out through the open window. End of story, no! Our then 9 year old daughter felt sorry for the mouse and went outside and rescued it. Unknown to us she took it to her friend who had a pet mouse in a cage. They put the mice together. Some time later I was talking to the friend's mum and she said they were overrun with mice and they'd no idea how their mouse could have got pregnant. Oops!

We have found that an empty coffee packet (Taylors) worked well. The mouse ran straight into it. Did it like the smell of coffee? I also have had a mouse up the trouser leg. I don't know what it was doing in my sister's bathroom!

When I was skimming down the list of active posts I first read the title as Cloves or coriander, and thought it was a cooking thread! However, re mice,I love Squiffy’s idea of a tube. I live I the country and mice often come in. Once when using my laptop I ‘felt’ that I was being watched and looked up....there beside me on a pile of books was an adorable little mouse: big dark eyes and bright chestnut coat with a white bib. So pretty.

Ha ha. I was reminded of this:

www.newsletter.co.uk/news/offbeat/video-two-ni-farmers-hilariously-try-to-catch-a-mouse-1-8099274

All these stories are the stuff of nightmares for me. I would have to move into a hotel until I was sure the place was cleared. It also makes me realise my pest control man was right when he advised me not to get a cat as they were more likely to bring in live mice than keep them away. I hate mice with a passion and if one ran up my leg I would go into cardiac arrest!

The same thing happened to us just before Christmas last year. I live in the countryside and we get little wood mice coming into the house in the winter. I have a humane trap containing peanut butter and hay, they usually get in there and eat the peanut butter and I let them out in the morning. However this time the mouse missed the trap and ended up in the cat's mouth.
I don't think Sasha has ever caught a mouse before, he came running into the living room, looking horrified with this poor little creature hanging out of his mouth. I grabbed Sasha, opened his mouth and got the mouse, holding it by it's very long tail I rushed into the hall opened the front door and put the mouse outside. Job done!

Many years ago DS3 trained his cat to bring in mouse dead and put it in his food dish and east it as his leisure. Urgh

I still shudder when I think of the mouse we found at work once. We had a new junior who was 'tea girl's and after a couple of weeks found she wasn't the cleanest of girls, as the glass cups and plates never looked as of they had been washed properly, people were starting to feel sick, and then I developed a nasty rash on my left cheek, needing antibiotics. About a week later, as someone tipped the kettle up to fill the teapot, something rattled about inside. When we looked inside, there was the remains of a mouse, by now mainly bones. Still don't know whether my rash was due to the dirty cups or the mouse brew we had been drinking. Dorothy said she had heard the rattle but had never taken the lid off the kettle to look inside, as she filled it through the spout. The downside for me was that I then became tea girl again as D was deemed not up to the job.

I would grab the front door handle and run for my life!

Greyduster's tale reminded me of when my son put his foot into his boots and found a decaying frog, a present from his cat.

Our long gone but much loved black cat would lie in the garden blinking in the sun, as small birds hopped around him, and I have seen mice completely ignored by this bone idle fur covered novelty cushion. He just could not be asked to get up and chase anything ever, I am pleased to say. our current feline is so timid that I fear a mouse might well chase him.

Reading this thread to DH it reminded him of a visit to DDIL when her kitten brought in the first mouse 'present'. When let go it ran everywhere to get away from the humans causing quite a ruckus and it finally wriggled under the door mat and stayed very still for long enough for DS to get his shoe off and thump it hard. It looked just like a cartoon all flattened with limbs agley. Kitten looked most affronted at the state of her gift, grabbed it and ran out off the house to eat what she could of it.

A dustpan and brush, as our mice, shrews moles etc. are usually dead before the cats bring them in.

Live mice: I would shut the cat in with the mouse and let him get on with catching it again!

Starlily, your story reminds me of a mouse-tale exchange with a friend recently. I was exclaiming that I saw a little mouse climb upout of our toaster one day (and actually photographed it as proof) but she topped my story. She and her husband had an open carton of milk in the fridge. They were happily pouring milk in their tea and returning the carton to the fridge until a day or two later when they finished the milk they found a dead mouse drowned in the bottom of the carton! How it got there nobody knows. My friend is a meticulous housekeeper. Yuk!!

Dustpan and brush

Apparently your cat bringing you a mouse is a gift and showing you how clever it is. Think you are supposed to show your gratitude by allowing it to bring it indoors if you are brave enough!! After a while I think they lose interest.....hopefully.

Invest in a couple of humane mouse-traps - like little tunnels with a flap which they can't manoeuvre to get out from. A few raisins or seeds at the end tempts them in. Our cat used to bring in live woodmice and gently deposit them around the house - they took up residence in the utility room low-level cupboards mostly and multiplied. I kept a head count of those I caught and released over several weeks - amounted to 45! I can't stand mice but these little brown woodmice are very sweet, so I didn't mind them too much.

Love the critter stories..best laugh I've had in ages!!

Oh grey duster, you reminded me several years ago when one of our cats deposited a dead mouse in one of my ugg boots. I think the whole road heard the scream when I tried to put my foot in! Needless to say I never wore that pair again. But the worse thing a few months back when I unlocked the front door, to find a large blackbird causing havoc in the kitchen. I immediately shut the door and called DH to come home and get it out. No idea how our cat had managed to get it through the cat flap?

Greyduster, How that story made me laugh! ?

When first married and not having much money, my grandma gave us a wooden cupboard on legs for the kitchen, and we kept the food in it, not having a fridge either. One evening, hubby asked for corn flakes for supper. I put the dish on the kitchen table, upended the corn flakes box..........and out ran a mouse! Much as I like the little beggars, we had to throw away everything in that cupboard that was wrapped in paper, it had sampled everything. On investigation we found an almost invisible crack in the back of the cupboard, and a rattling noise in
the plastic bucket underneath showed us that the mouse/mice had been jumping up to get in the cupboard.. He solved it, to my sorrow, by putting some water in the bucket, and the result was several drowned mice.

Good reason not to own a cat!

My cat usually eats mice he catches, shrews however are a different matter, cats don't eat them, apparently they taste bitter, don't know who discovered that fact

I have found a dead mouse/shrew under my settee when I moved it to clean, not often moved as settee is very heavy & not on castors

We have been lucky enough to have a variety of cats through the years, and have been "gifted", mice, voles, shrews, rats, a mole, frog, baby rabbit and a variety of birds, the majority alive. Think, they just like the excitement of watching you run about! But must admit the 'present' which caused the most consternation was a young herring gull which our former feral boy decided to bring in. He had been in dispute with the gulls which liked to swoop low over the back garden for a long time, but as he was quite elderly and stiff we never thought anything would come of it. Ha! not only did he catch it, but managed to get it in through the cat flap, and up the stairs into one of the bedrooms.
Much chasing, and bad language, from the gull, me and the cat! (who had managed to get out from the bathroom, where he had been confined) and he was caught and taken to a wildlife rescue, where he made a full recovery.
The funny thing was, the feathers on his wing where he had been injured grew in white, so he as quite distinctive, and could often be seen glaring, is the only word for it, at our house from the nearest lampost, ( rescue always tried to release where an animal is from) while all the others gazed out towards the sea.
Oh, and we found a pint glass and table mat invaluable for catching small things.

Never forget my cat brought in a rat which went behind the sideboard. Mum and I pulled it out and Mum (in her 80,s) was trying to hit it with a broom. Where was dear hubby? Standing on table screaming lol!!!