Mouse-ageddon

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Morgan: Don’t worry. I’ll save you from marauding mice!

All the action in this house happens in the middle of the night. Always.

Last week I posted about the mouse that Morgan, my one-eyed mouser cat, snuffed out and the rehoming. (If you missed it click here.) I was hoping that was the end of the story. With mice it never is. They come in groups. I should have known!

For a few nights after the big “mouse catching” incident, Morgan slept in the basement. It made me nervous but then again maybe she was being cautious. She is very serious about her mouse duties.

A few nights later I heard a cat yelling….around 3 a.m. (Didn’t I tell you it always happens in the middle of the night?) I pride myself in being able to tell my cats apart by their sounds. I was sure this was Hazel, my overly plump older cat.

As cats age they can get disoriented during the night and they will cry. I’ve had two cats do that for the last few years of their life. I was hoping that wasn’t happening.

Hazel: Sure I need a snack. How about a scratch behind my ear?

Hazel is not a very vocal cat but she was whining. After ten minutes or so I went down and she was lying on the dining room floor. I scratched her, talked to her softly and gave her a snack. Then I went back to bed. Half an hour later I heard it again. The beloved husband sighed so I decided to check on her. She was blissfully lying on the dining room table (no she doesn’t belong there).

I talked to her, scratched her, fed her (yep again) and brought her upstairs so she could sleep on her favorite chair. That was it.

When I got up the next morning the beloved husband informed me that there was a dead mouse in the living room. Morgan was pacing at the bottom of the stairs very intent. I know that look. Something was there. The beloved husband assured me that he checked and there wasn’t anything.

There was a tail next to a bucket at the bottom of the steps. I don’t know about your buckets but mine don’t come with tails. Within ten minutes I captured and rehomed the poor thing.

Then I had a discussion with the cats. It was not Hazel who was whining, it was Morgan’s hunting call. I don’t hear it often enough to recognize. However, Hazel did not mind the extra attention and two snacks in the middle of the night and hopes that we continue this “tradition.” (Fat chance of that happening!)

As for Gracie, according to Morgan and from what I saw during my rehoming episode, she was hopping around yelling, “Let me see, I want to see the mouse. I can get him. Come on. You’re in my way.” Interested but definitely useless.

Oldest cat Mollie slept through this event. She was on the bed so she also could hear Morgan’s hunting calls but obviously didn’t care. Hazel was amused but not enough to move. My two one-eyed gray cats were the only ones with any interest in mice.

The take-away is that my two older cats are definitely retired and on a cat form of social security. One-eyed cats can find mice as well as two-eyed cats. If there is a cat whining in the middle of the night, something’s going on.

One more thing — when you aren’t there to see, they do things they are not allowed to do (but you already knew that, didn’t you?)

I am hoping for a peaceful week where I can sleep through the night without interruption from smoke alarms or hunting cats.

59 thoughts on “Mouse-ageddon”

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    • It was. A few nights later when the smoke alarm went off, I saw her downstairs sprawled on a chair. She looked at me hoping for snacks and a rub and purred almost louder than the smoke alarm. Very strange as that noise would normally send her under a bed. Perhaps that’s how I would get her out of the house in a fire.

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  7. Yes, one-eyed cats can hunt as well as two-eyed cats. I like hearing that. (I have one eye that can barely see the E at the top of the eye chart, so I feel some comaraderie with the one-eyed gray cats.)

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  8. Those cats retired without completely training the mouser replacements? Figures. Looks like they are managing to get up to speed though with one able to demonstrate.
    ” I don’t know about your buckets but mine don’t come with tails. ” What a great line. Always enjoy your style and storytelling. (Hope you get a little more sleep and fewer mousie feet from now on)

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    • Fortunately my cats are more adept at spotting mice than my husband. Mollie (the eldest cat at 13) did have a chipmunk when she was young. I believe she took a package for early retirement when Morgan came on board. You know how testy workers get when you bring in younger ones.

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  9. Good job Morgan! And Hazel you are a stinker… a very cute stinker but a stinker. Why does it not surprise me that Hazel loves the dining room table? We were having trouble with mice, snakes, and possibly chippies getting in the basement walls and dropped ceiling and dying there… the STINK. I finally had to call our Critter Control guy Peter and he filled every hole and crevice in our foundation and under the siding, they like to use corners to get in. Then we got bats in the attic… yeah, I know… Peter was here again to screen all the vents and turbines. Next was a groundhog that dug a nice cool den under the concrete front porch and then a skunk used it and that was when I called Peter again. Skunk was trapped and screen was placed a foot and a half down in the ground and all around the concrete porch. I don’t know what we do without Peter. We may think we own our house but we really just rent from the critters! I hope things settle down at your place and you get a good night’s sleep, Kate. Remember, Morgan is on guard!

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    • Wow! So far no snakes here. I lived in a house a long time ago that got the dead animals in the walls. The smell! And there was nothing I could do. I caulked and closed off but it happened about once a year. I need Peter. Can you send him over? I suspect we have a chipmunk condo under our back steps but so far haven’t had any issues with chipmunks.

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      • Sure, I could send him your way. He would find where those mice are coming in in no time. He would plug it up with steel wool and screen and caulk with his magic caulk. We still have to check all the places he plugged up once a year because they still chew through the steel wool! BUT then Morgan would miss her mouse patrol!

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        • Morgan is very proficient so far. We have had a lot of $$ damage from field mice but all outside. They chewed through our heat pump (cha-ching) and got into the beloved husband’s car air-conditioner (cha-ching). They should stick to sunflower seeds.

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  11. Oh my gosh, what a story! I hear you on the retirement. I always tell my cats they think I am running a nursing home here. What is a funny hidden subtext is that your cats must have temporarily thought you were an idiot!

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      • Hahaha, you are probably right. Kana has now learned how to open cupboards, which is a little nightmare. She can’t understand why I had to pull a piece of furniture in front of one of them when she had work to do in there with all the cleaning supplies etc. I need some child proof locks! Anyway, she thinks I am so stupid.

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  12. Good for Morgan! She is doing her job keeping the house little critter free. I don’t have mice for Teddy and Jack to take care of but they occasionally bring in a big ole roach from the balcony. They think bugs are like wind-up toys and great fun. I’m not crazy about it but boys will be boys.

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  14. Funny, Kate. I was thinking about dead mice when I was weeding the yard the other day. It is so overgrown, no telling what I might find in there. You are so kind to re-home. I wouldn’t be.

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    • Most people don’t like mice. They can do damage and we’ve had some significant damage from mice but nothing inside the home. They are trying to survive just like everyone else. I did rehome a good distance away from the house.

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  17. You know when you say there’s action in the middle of the night some people might assume you were talking about hanky panky– not a one-eyed cat keeping the realm safe from mouse intruders. 😉

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  18. Mous-ageddon is the purr-fect word. I thought mice went outside in the summer! I lost count – our boys caught at least 6 – Reiner caught three with traps. We think we got ’em all. (Famous last words, eh Kate?)

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  19. Smiling through the whole story, but glad it wasn’t me awakened in the middle of the night and having to deal with mice! But hey, it does make for a great post! You should thank your cats for that. 🙂 I believe Hazel is really grinning inside, hoping for a repeat performance tonight. Hopefully for your sake, there won’t be one!
    Then again, it would make an entertaining post. 🙂

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  22. In a rural area, it is advisable to keep mouse poison available all year long as the critters often invade my old and easily invaded domicile. One of them was suffering the ill effects in the garage a few days ago when I turned the corgi out for her morning ritual. I made her drop the creature, got my shovel and finished the job and disposed of it. I do not rehome when it comes to mice.

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    • After 14 years of living here this is the first time we’ve had mice inside. I can’t use poison. One of the cats could catch and eat it. I’m relying on the cats to get the ones indoors. Outdoors the mice are on their own. There was a dead mouse under the bird feeder a few days ago. We have a lot of hawks that feed on them. I can only assume that the hawk dropped it near the feeder. This has been a big year for mice and chipmunks.

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  23. I now know who to call the next time a mouse comes to visit! That is great news because I definitely cannot deal with mice! Once again, you are very brave.

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