My cat is behaving really oddly

[Rollergirl1]

Cat isn't the sharpest tool in the box by any stretch...

This morning at 7.30 as DH was leaving for work he commented on the cat sat in front of the cooker (there is about a 3inch gap underneath it that numerous things have rolled under) and asked if perhaps there was a mouse under there. Cat has brought in a few mice in the last few weeks and we have come in to the kitchen to a massacre that we've had to clean up before the kids have come down.

Anyway, the cat has pretty much sat watching the gap under the cooker for the whole day. A few times he has seemed a bit scared and has run off. Other times he has done the whole bum-wiggling thing as if he's about to pounce (stupid cat doesn't realise he can't fit in the gap). I have been flat out on the floor numerous times througout the day to check. I have retrieved countless bouncy balls, a toy mouse, hair-bands, packet mixes and other stuff that have all fallen down or rolled in there. I have shone a torch in there. There is nothing in there.

Yet cat is still sat there now. Watching. He has now gone to sleep sat in front of the gap. He has never done this in his life.

What does he think is in there???! He has often in the past gone back to the last place that he saw something (when I have had to save or get rid of a mouse that he's brought in) but it usually only holds his attention for half an hour tops. It's like he's keeping guard.

It's starting to freak me out a bit.

[Doinmummy]

I bet there's a mouse hole and he's waiting for mickey to appear !

[Hassled]

There's a mouse and it has an exit route at the back which you're not seeing. I've tried to convince myself of alternative explanations ("the cat's really thick") in similar circumstances and there's always, always a mouse. Get a trap as close as you can - peanut butter will draw it in.

[Rollergirl1]

Hassled: Do you mean that the mouse is coming and going as it pleases? I was thinking that it might be a mouse but one that the cat had brought in and it had run under there. But do you think it might be an opportunistic mouse?

[cozietoesie]

It's a mouse. Leave him to it.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Our cat went through a phase of sitting in front of his food cupboard scratching to be let in so i would open a pouch and he would ignore it. One day I was tired after a long drive and left the cupboard door open (he can open kitchen doors now) and while I was upstairs I heard jars being moved and general kerfuffle.

Came downstairs to find cat with a mouse in his mouth. Only time ever he's been told good boy for hunting.

Moral of the story. If the cat is quite happy to sit for ages looking under something there is a mouse under there.

[aPirateInaPearTree]

def a mouse that's hidden under there, and may well have gone somewhere. eek!