To askIf every cat brings mice in?

[CommuterMummy]

Following up from another post from today, I just wanted to ask this to a wider audience.
I have a real mice phobia and am scared that getting a cat will mean having them bringing them home dead or, even worse, alive. I am reading of a lot of people saying their cats bring home all sorts of animals but I wonder how rurally these MNetters live? We’d be in a house in Surrey, not very rural, close to town centre and with a small garden.
DH had cats most of his life when growing up and says his ones never did it. They only went in the garden for a bit during the day and at night they’d be kept in the house and they never brought prays in.
I am panicking a bit reading comments from other posters with their cats brining mice in continously but DH is adamant that it doesn’t happen with all cats and depends on where you live, how free they are to go out etc.
Anyone here who has a similar experience to DH and what do you do to avoid unwanted “guests”?

My cat is 6, for the first 4 years of her life, we lived in a town, small gardens, few trees. She brought in 2 birds and a mouse in that time, plus countless butterflies. We've lived rurally backing onto fields for 18 months and have had a torrent of mice, voles, birds, and notably last Easter Sunday, a baby bunny. Most of this alive so requires catching which is time consuming and difficult. It is an absolute pain in the butt. We shut her in at night for safety which probably reduces it and limits her ability to sneak things in and 'lose' them in the house without us knowing.

We live rurally and our cat has never brought a mouse in. He does manage to catch rabbits sometimes but takes them off elsewhere, never brings them to the house. I've never seen him with a mouse

We get treated to a mouse's head or some entrails most mornings, particularly during wet weather for some reason. But we are fairly rural and surrounded by fields. Also had a (unharmed) baby rabbit that I once found hopping around upstairs.

grumpy old male cat, never caught a thing
super friendly female kitty: savage killer, a mouse a day

Old rescue fart - brought zip in (rural area)
Two year old Rag-doll, sam location - dead shrew carpet.

It's the cat. She just can't ... ooh the little furry magicians .. he thinks 0oh mum says no "

I live in a city centre flat and the cat has brought in worms, mice, birds and frogs! I’d say over the five years we’ve had him its maybe been 20 times altogether. He’s a big scaredy and not a killer so they are always alive, on the occasion he has brought something dead in i am pretty sure it’s another cars prey! I used to be terrified but i’ve got a bit braver over time.

And to agree with PP we keep
him in at night to reduce surprises.

We live in a city but our cat used to bring in a couple of 'presents' a week. Now she is getting older and she hasn't caught anything in a long while.

Anecdotally, female cats seem to be the best hunters.

We live rurally and have had seven cats in the last 25 years. Two of them have occasionally brought an animal in. PIL (not as rural as us) have one cat who sometimes brings in half a dozen animals in one day. If your cat is a hunter, then they will bring them in regardless of where you live.

I personally don’t think you should risk getting a cat when you have no clue how it’ll be. Unless you’re going to have a house cat then there’s no guarantee of anything.

My auntie’s cat is 13 years old and she STILL brings dead/live mice into the house to show my auntie what she’s caught. She’s also come back to the house with a few birds in her time. They live in SW London Zone 2. No countryside surrounding them.

My son’s physiotherapist also has a cat who constantly brings in mice from outside. They currently have a mouse problem because the cat came inside with a live mouse and my son’s physiotherapist and her partner struggled to catch it. There now seems to be multiple mice in the house😅

As you can see by some of the comment’s, some peoples cats have never came back into the house with any rodents/animals. I think if you have a phobia that you just shouldn’t risk it

Our cat has only once brought a (dead) mouse in, she tends to leave them at the back door. We live in the city, and she doesn’t roam beyond shouting distance. She’s always in overnight/when we’re out at work.

Oh, she’s nine and a moggy.

I have a rescue boy. He brought me a leaf once
He lets spiders run over his paws and looks at them with mild interest, watches the birds happily and wouldn't dream of catching anything
I've said before if he ever brought me a kill, I would be taking him to the vet

Oh and he goes out but never at night
I'm also phobic about mice

No, ours never have

We had one which did, daily, but I think it's because we got him as a kitten from a farm, and his mum trained him well.

We've had 4 cats over the years, have a large garden that backs onto a field, and they've ALL been hunters.

They bring in...

Dead mice - easy to deal with, but our current cat likes to throw them around when she brings them in and sometimes you get hit by a flying dead mouse.

Live mice - buggers to catch, a cereal box usually does the trick as somewhere dark for them to hide in, then they can be released easily.

Frogs - they make a horrendous noise when caught!

Birds - feathers of a small bird can cover quite a large area of carpet.

Once, a huge rat. Urgh.

And one mostly brought in huge earthworms after heavy rain - that was the worst of the lot as they make a thick slime when stressed which was gross.

MIL once found a live, large rabbit in her upstairs bathroom that their cat had brought up from someone's garden, onto the garage roof and into the bathroom through the open window.

You can buy prey-detecting cat flaps that deny entry if they detect the cat is bringing in something unwanted.

Mine is a mouser.
She is also tiny.

Last week we had 2 mice and a toad. On separate nights. First mouse she actually ate 🤮. Just left the back legs which a magpie carried off the next day whilst I was working. Saw it through the French doors.

The toad had me screaming. DP had to step in.

Last but not least, a year or so ago, the little bastard came trotting in with a Koi Carp!!

We don’t have a cat now but we did when I was a child. My mum is terrified of rodents however the cat was forever either bringing in dead mice or piling them up on the doorstep. When my dad was in he sorted it out but he was invariably at work, so I used to get sent to the neighbour’s and she came and cleared them!

One of mine did it for a couple of Autumns before he learned that 'You can take that poor bloody thing back outside where you got it from' meant his toys were not welcome indoors. The other never got the hang of it, but would run into the living room occasionally with a muffled squeak and around 7 and a half legs sticking out between her teeth.

Some are just generally crap at the entire earning their keep thing. Others are gloriously satanic destroyers and bringers of Mousageddon to the bit behind the shed.

To add we lived in a big city but there was a grassy area/park at the back of the house

Mine is a mouser centre of city. A mouse a day

Indoor cat, one of the benefits! Although it did manage to catch a bird that had flown into the enclosed area which we let him in, by some miracle given the lack of practice.

If you are going to be on tenterhooks all the time, even if the cat doesn't do it, I would think it would be too stressful.

May be complete coincidence but neither of the male cats I’ve had have brought any kills in but both my female cats did/do. We get a variety of mice, frogs, birds and the occasional baby rabbit or rat. Live fairly rurally though.

I've got two who are smallholding cats. In five years one has never bought a single thing in, I don't believe even caught anything, and the other has only once brought anything in the house despite almost daily catching mice, shrews, rats, rabbits or squirrels (he is only meant to catch the rats and mice but he didn't get the memo). He does leave bits on the patio or in the greenhouse but I just shovel them up.

The bloody dog!! Bought a live mouse in once though. He has a lovely soft spaniel mouth.