Cats Are Useless

[Jay_Bunny]

Some of you may remember a thread I started on how to dispose of a rejected feeder rat and I had planned on getting it a new enclosure. Before I could get one, we checked on the rat and sure enough, it had found a way out of the box it had been living in. We searched the house but could find no rat. We figured it was hiding in a closet somewhere or behind something. Last night my fiance yells for me to come upstairs. He had found the rat! Apparently my cats are useless at finding rodents. I had hoped they would alert us to the presence of the rat but no, instead they had decided to share their food and water instead. My fiance went into our bedroom to discover our youngest cat drinking from the water dish alongside the escapee rat. Thankfully we caught the rat and now it will have a secure enclosure until we can get dry ice for our CO2 chamber.

[ctrlfreq]

How odd, we use our cats specifically for tracking down escapees.

[invadertoast]

Back when I used to keep pet rats, I had one that used to chase the cats and grab them through the cage bars. She used to get loose everynight (no matter what I did to keep her in the cage,) and I'd find her at the foot of my bed or sometimes in my parent's bed. I also had an escapee that lived on cat food for two months, the cats didn't seem to mind as I'd see her in there all the time with them but could never catch her. Eventually she got fat and lazy and I found her sitting on top of her mom's cage waiting to be put back in.

[Jay_Bunny]

Of course, I should mention, my cats are lazy little bums.

[mlededee]

Maybe your cats are just rat friendly? One of my cats LOVES to "help" me catch escapees and any time I go out to the garage where the rats lives he is right behind me. Every once in a while one will get away from me and shoot under the rack and hide behind it up against the wall. I pull out the bottom tubs and call Nigel over and he chases them right out for me. He doesn't usually pick them up but he will trap them and hold them with his paws until I come get them, at which time he likes to give them a good smack as I'm lifting them up (we keep soft paws nail covers on the cats so he can't really hurt them when he manages to make contact). He has never hurt any of the escapees in any way--I think somehow he knows he is supposed to catch them but not hurt them? I dunno, but I certainly appreciate his assistance when needed.

[Sasquatch Art]

If I ever had a mouse escape my cat would go on a hunt and find it within seconds.....Now that I only breed rats....Well lets just say he is afraid of rats...

[Jay_Bunny]

See our cats never even alerted us to the fact there was a rat in the room. They just came and cuddled with us like they do every night. All the while, the darn thing was chewing up a pair of my shoes. Thankfully they were my old ones that I've been meaning to throw in the trash.

Maybe they thought it was an undersized kitten?

[fishmommy]

our cats are variable.

useless when needed
hyper-active mouse torturers when you'd prefer to sleep

when the mouse is chewing in the walls keeping you awake, the cat is dead to the world
when the beautiful first sparrows of spring arrive, the cat is striking supernaturally accurate death blows.

useless, in an almost malicious way


too bad they're so soft and cuddly and cute.

[Entropy]

Oh man. I have to be careful not to have Shiloh in the room with me when I feed. He'll spring up and slap the mouse of my hands just so he can chase it. Silly booger.

[Peachy_Pythons]

If our cat ever got the chance to get her paws on a rodent, she'd destroy it in seconds. She's the sweetest, most loving creature I've ever had the pleasure of being around, but if what she does to her toys are any indication as to her killer instincts...poor rat would have a better time with one of my snakes...

Edited to include this fond memory: When I was still living at home with my parents, we had 6 indoor/outdoor cats. We lived out in the middle of the woods. Our kitties would often bring us "presents" to the front door. I think they probably joked with each other and made bets about who could bring the biggest, nastiest kill to the door to impress the humans.