any mouse experts out there?

[tissy]

Ok cat killed 4 mice last night, and left them on the kitchen floor

3 of the corpses were near the cat flap, so it's perfectly feasible that she brought them in from outside.

There are no mouse droppings in the house,I had a paranoid check.

These mice were about 3" long and had SHORT tails- all the pictures of both house and field mice I have found show long tails, so what were they?

Voles? Do voles have a short tail?

She is an old cat- at least 15, and I suspect she found a nest...we've had them one at a time before, but never 4!

Don't need any mose destruction advice- we have a cat! But would be interested to know whether Simba is singlehandedly causing the extinction of a rare species!!

[crazycanuck]

could they have been shrews?

shrew

[tissy]

hmmm- didn't notice a long thin nose, and corpses are now safely stowed in the wheelie bin!

[southeatsastras]

perhaps they had their tails cut off by the farmer's wife

[Yorkshirepudding]

Message withdrawn

[crazycanuck]

lol southeatsastras!

maybe there were voles like you initally thought

vole

[bookwormtailmum]

They might be rats - our cat brought in a creature the other month I swore was a mouse but the general consensus was that it was a rat as it was too big to be a mouse (I was looking for the highest piece of furniture off the floor to climb on by this time). Whatever it was, it got sucked up the hoover so it was no more after that.

[mummylin2495]

did your little creatures have clogs on ? and did they have pockets with a picture of a windmill in there ? if so they are definately mice

[bookwormtailmum]

only if they're on the stair as well .

[mummylin2495]

and it has to be "right there "

[Rhubarb]

Can I just suggest that as a cat owner you get your cat a collar with a bell please? We get neighbours cats in our garden and they stalk the birds on the bird table, kill them and leave the corpses in our garden for our children to see. It's not very nice and personally I think all cat owners should be forced to fit their cats with bells so they can't rip baby robins or blue tits to shreds.

Thank you.

[tissy]

Rhubarb, I take your point, but this cat is old and fat and hasn't caught a bird for years. I still have vivid memories of my dad climbing a tree when I was a child to rescue our cat who was hanging from one of the branches by her collar. We were just about to set off for a weeks' holiday, and if we had not seen her, she would have starved/ choked to death. Both cats had collars removed forthwith. I was really upset by that incident.

[bookwormtailmum]

Rhubarb our cat has three bells on her collar and she has no problems catching mice or other small creatures in the garden although I must admit she's not been caught with birds yet. P'raps I've got a nest of deaf or particularly stupid mice in my garden though .

[Tutter]

[Yorkshirepudding]

Message withdrawn