(September 29, 2022 at 1:24 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:(September 29, 2022 at 10:19 am)Jehanne Wrote: Cats can and do terrorize and kill mice and rats. Our relationship with them is not completely asymmetrical.
Not all cats. A friend of mine has a cat that runs away from a toy mouse on a string.
because she is on tile floor and can’t get traction with her claws, she skids around and drift through corners as she bolts from the mouse toy.
Genetic drift?
When my wife & I moved into our home 25+ years ago, my wife discovered, to her horror, that we had a mouse in our basement. I had two cats at the time, a Persian mix without his front claws and an American curl mix with all four clawed feet. That night I locked them both in the basement, thinking that they would take care of the problem.
The next morning I assured my wife that the problem had been resolved after letting both cats upstairs with a completely quiet basement. A few hours later I got a frantic call from my wife, screaming that the mouse was still there.
The following night I again locked both cats in the basement, but this time I took their food bowl in their presence, waving it in front of both their faces, and as they looked on, I told them both, "No mouse, no food".
The next morning the basement was again quiet, and my wife again called me at work a few hours later to say that she had discovered the mouse's managed and lifeless body.
