alternative foods

Warning: if you're squeamish about the activities of carnivores, this might not be the post for you...

We live in an old house. As old houses are wont to do, we have mice in the basement and attic where the cats are not permitted (we keep the cats out of there primarily because we don't want them tracking dirt all over the place. The attic is unfinished and dirty with construction rubble, and the basement has direct access to the crawlspace, which is, well, dirt)

So we set snap-traps, one was successful...and we gave it to the cats.

Honestly, we were a little conflicted about this. One one side, it is a little 'icky', to use the scientific term. Also the mice have probably been eating all sorts of unwholesome things up there. On the other hand, it's a one time thing, not a steady diet, and aren't mice what cats are supposed to eat? We know Mickey supplemented his kibble liberally during his earlier life as a barn cat. M remembers a scene when Mickey and his littermates were just weaned, adorable bundles of kitten fluff - with faces covered in blood from the chipmunk mom had caught for dinner. So in the spirit of waste-not want-not, and since the mouse was fresh, we went for it.

Mickey loved it.

Understand here, despite being the man of the house, significantly older, and at least four times bigger than Fuu, Mickey pretty much defers to her. She can stick her head in the food bowl at will, or do various other obnoxious things, and he lets her. Fuu is teh fierce kitteh, and Mickey is a lazy, easy going cuddle bum.

But not with the mouse. He grabbed it, growled at her and ran off to play with it (unfortunately we gave the it to them after breakfast). Fuu growling wouldn't be notable, but I have never heard Mickey do it. So we locked them in the laundry room, and soon, no more mouse. Guess that one was a winner.


Addendum: I re-read this and realized it wasn't 100% clear, but the mouse was already dead by the time the cats saw it. They played with it anyway. I agree that intentionally having them toy with a live or injured mouse would have been completely out of line.