saved a mouses life last night what would you have done

[issey6cats]

i let jojo my girl out last night for her toilet (she does this wont go indoors lol) and a few minutes later she shot through the door with something in her mouth, knew it was a mouse and thought here we go another body to dispose of, it was belting it down with rain and the mouse was limp, cold, soaking wet, then just as i was about to dispose of it, i thought its back leg twitched, so watched it for a while, dried it a bit with loo roll, and believe it or not its little heart started beating,

so there i am with a live but limp mouse and four cats looking at me, dilemma, cant keep it in the house obviously, so thought right i will put it in the shed still felt awful for the mouse cos its pouring down, that plan didnt work as the shed roof leaks and puddles on the floor of the shed, so i thought right will put him/her in one of the planters outside with a cat dish angled to try and keep it dry lol mad me, so i did that and a couple of minutes later off the mouse went,

what would you have done in the same circumstances

I have saved some like you did & (as a humane kindness) bashed in heads of others (the ones with terrible wounds or broken backs). Better that than letting cat play with it like a squeaky toy for another ten minutes until it finally croaks. It's amazing how good they are playing dead, or maybe it's shock that literally freezes them up so that they seem like goners, until you give them a few quiet minutes to find their legs again.

I had a baby one broght in by a previous cat. I had pet mice at the time so put it in the small cage I used to take the pet ice to the vet.

I put in food and water and expected it to be dead in the morning.

In the morning it was gone. I saw the odd gray streak for the next few days as she ran arround. I eventually got her in the humane trap, but she escaped again into the kitchen before I could get her outside.

For the next few weeks we occasionally saw evidence of her - little foot prints in the fat left in the fryig pan.

Then she made her vital mistake, and Charlie (the cat) was seen jumping out the window with the bum of an adult mouse hanging out of his mouth.

I had no chance of getting her back, Charlie was over hte fence into the next street in seconds.

For weeks I had visions of him bringing in more baby mice and asking me to fatten them up for him.

My DH once caught a mouse in a shoebox in the early hours, after we couldn't work out why the cat was shuttling along the radiator in our bedroom. She'd brought the mouse into the house because it was cold outside. That mouse lived as we kept her in and the mouse out!

Another time I intervened in the garden as soon as she'd caught the mouse and it was playing dead. I made the rookie mistake of picking the mouse up and the wretched thing sunk it's very sharp teeth into my finger. I screamed in pain and threw the mouse into the undergrowth and tried to shoo the cat away and dripped blood all the way back to the house. I was glad my tetanus etc was up to date!

At least my cat doesn't eat them once the poor things are dead. She is surprisingly fast for an 18 yo.

I have 'saved' two ungrateful mice, both of whom bit me. I am tarring all their kind with that brush and shall not bother in the future.

I saved a swallow from Cat B this summer, only for the silly thing to try to fly out of the wisteria I wedged it in before it was able and hence be promptly dispatched by Cat A.

I once rang the rspca for help after wrestling an injured pigeon from my cats jaws. They weren't interested but told me to hand it in at the vets.

I duly trotted down to the vets where I was looked at like I was barking mad. They reluctantly took it from me in the end telling me they'd put it to sleep. I was left feeling like it would have been easier on the poor bird if I'd just left the cat to it. [Sad]

But I'd do it again as I couldn't watch and yes, I'd try and save the mouse.

Oh my.

I recall catching a mouse in my hands once. It was pure chance. I was young and sleekly muscled - but it was still pure chance! Put out my hand sideways and caught it.

The little blighter had kept me up for two nights gnawing at the skirting board but I really didn't know what to do. In the end, I went out for messages and flung him in the toilet on the way out. Then - when I returned- I went in and flushed it with my eyes closed. Maybe he escaped, maybe not.

I regularly capture mice and release them out the front door across the road!

I have a mouse in the house. I saw the little bastard last night. Today I have bought two traps and have baited them with Nutella. I'm anticipating the snap of the trap and the short squeal of a mortally wounded mouse.

Hard bread crusts are the thing, Nicholas.

I feel the need to post this link. (For those of you who have a heart attack - see it through to the end!)

\link{\mouse trap}

Have saved many a mouse, frog and bird from my murderous little beast. I'd feel better if she actually ate them because then it's kind of like - the mouse/frog/bird's death wasn't for nothing and it was just nature. I did put one in a shoebox with some cotton wool, water and Shreddies once to revive it and give it a chance. On the whole I'm a dab hand with chucking a tuppaware box over whatever creature it is, sliding paper underneath and carrying them outside.

Hahaha one bird though - the cat brought it in and all I saw were tiny wings and a long tail before it scuttled under the sofa. I was shrieking to DH "Bo's brought something in...some kind of mammal...with wings....and a tail! WTF is it!!" We spent all afternoon lifting furniture and trying to chuck a tea towel over it, after ascertaining that it was just a bird. Eventually we left the front door open, turned our backs for aaaaaaaages, and it crawled to the front door and flew away. Bo was not amused at being shut in the bedroom.

The mouse deaths in my garden are never wasted. Although my cat doesn't touch them once they're dead, the magpies / kites / foxes or rooks eat the dead mice once I've put them in the centre of the lawn.

It is recycling

My husband actually puts them in a shoebox and drives to the local cemetary which is on the edge of the countryside. We've tried releasing them in the front garden before, but there are so many cats locally and one seems to know if there's fun to be had!

madmog I'd worry about doing that, what if there was a litter of baby mice with a mum that couldn't get back to them?

Even though I'm callous about their corpses and think that they'd have to fend for themselves if their mum was dead...

I had to chase one around the living room until it was tired enough for me to catch it.

I locked the cat in the kitchen but he went out through the cat flap and came in through the open front door. He had obviously thought it through more than I had.

Frogs are the easiest, no obviouse injuries usually and they play dead long enough for me to get them back out again.

I get a couple per week, let him play with it for 5 mins then throw it out into bushes; unless middle of night in which case I awake to dead body at bottom of the stairs and it goes in the bin.....

Thankfully Cat B doesn't catch things very often - 3 since January - and Cat A eats them. Apart from the rabbit - we shared that.