Gyroscopic Investing

WiseOne wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 1:16 pm Nice, CT-Scott! Great that your little furballs came in handy for your Great Mouse Adventure.

My cats have killed one critter each, while in my mom's backyard being walked on leashes. One cat flushed out a rat from the next door neighbor's rock garden and went after it with great gusto. He got it in his mouth and killed it, then held it while growling and spitting like a freight train. i swear he became a much more confident cat after that - before that, he was a bit skittish after having a really traumatic experience as a kitten (bowel obstruction from a toy). He's also the one I'd vote Most Likely to Kill a Mouse, just from the way he plays.

I know I have mice under the stove, but they don't venture out beyond that - the cats are great deterrents. They sometimes camp in front of the stove daring one of those critters to come out.

When I had an older cat and mice under my refrigerator, I put him in front of it but he just sat there like nothing was going on. I'd guessed it was a combination of him being too old and getting plenty of his expensive prescription dental cat food so he did not need to hunt for his food.

Totally different story with these three young ones I now have.

I used to ALWAYS see signs of mice activity in various places in my house. The first winter I had these three cats, I saw ZERO signs. I thought the mice who did venture here quickly left and put out the message to all the rest of the mice in the neighborhood that my house was NO longer a safe house for mice.

This past winter the cats did get two that were in my bedroom. Tried to save one by giving it its own aquarium home but it did not last long and died.

One morning I was laying in bed and heard furious activity in this bedroom among the three of them. I quickly got up to see what they were then looking at and saw one of my gerbils sitting underneath my electric piano amplifier.

I quickly threw all three cats of the room and shut the door.

Miracles of miracles it only took me only a few minutes to catch it. Gerbils are extremely quick and my bedroom is the ultimate haven for which a gerbil can hide -- even out of the reach of the cats. He then got reunited with his 3 other gerbil-mates and they all seemed to be quite happy to be whole again.

Final mice story. Last Tuesday when I last shopped for food I stocked up on some semi-perishables, e.g., oranges, and I put them in boxes in the basement, since its cooler there. On the top box I put some old expensive ferret food in hopes that any mice in the basement would get their fill of that food and not bother with my food. A week later that ferret food has remained untouched so I think the word is back out there that this is NOT a safe house for mice. There is, though, some unidentified animal continuing to come into my garage to eat the ferret food I put in the bowl.

Vinny

Vinny

Yet another cat & mouse story....

My sister lives in a wooded area and is constantly beset by mice. I gave her bags of used cat litter to sprinkle around the base of the house. She reports this worked better to reduce her mouse problem than anything else she's tried - and it's a lot less toxic.

I've got a bag stashed by my front door awaiting her next visit!

WiseOne wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:59 pm My sister lives in a wooded area and is constantly beset by mice. I gave her bags of used cat litter to sprinkle around the base of the house. She reports this worked better to reduce her mouse problem than anything else she's tried - and it's a lot less toxic.

Oh, I'll have to look into that. We're in the woods and when we first bought the house (2008) we quickly discovered that the house seemed pretty infested with them. Over time it's gotten a lot better, but it's still an issue.

WiseOne wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:59 pm Yet another cat & mouse story....

My sister lives in a wooded area and is constantly beset by mice. I gave her bags of used cat litter to sprinkle around the base of the house. She reports this worked better to reduce her mouse problem than anything else she's tried - and it's a lot less toxic.

I've got a bag stashed by my front door awaiting her next visit!

I guess it also tells you that the mice don't have toxoplasmosis, right?

S/he’s got a litle beauty mark, like Madonna. That’s cool. Great looking cat.

dualstow wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 4:27 pm S/he’s got a litle beauty mark, like Madonna. That’s cool. Great looking cat.

You know what’s funny? I have the same mole/beauty mark thing on the same spot on my face lol! We figure it was meant to be.

Ha, that makes 3 of us. Well, when I was a child my mother called it a beauty mark (and told me i was special). More recently, she said, “Have you considered removing that mole?”
She meant for health’s sake. It’s not unsightly.

In any case, I love the random color variations on cats.

Smith1776 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 4:23 pm 56BC13AF-5F49-47E6-A585-9EFC0095F716.jpeg

Continues to be such a beautiful cat in SO many ways! Keep them coming! At LEAST one a day!

Vinny

yankees60 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 5:36 pm Continues to be such a beautiful cat in SO many ways! Keep them coming! At LEAST one a day!
Vinny

Lily (my cat), says that she is extremely flattered that she has earned another fan.

One more for the road!

So that’s what it looks like without ice and snow.

Well, things have gotten interesting...

After catching her first mouse ever (sometime between last night and this morning), our gray cat (Zuzu) caught yet *another* mouse this evening. I was busy in the basement fixing something and I heard my wife and daughter yell to me about it. By the time I came upstairs, my daughter had a cardboard box covering the mouse. Apparently Zuzu wasn't too happy that they had taken away her toy. They told me that they were in the other room when they heard what sounded like a squealing mouse, got up, and saw Zuzu with the mouse in her mouth and swinging it around.

When I got upstairs, my daughter with the cardboard box was near our rear slider, so I got a broom, opened the slider, told her to lift the box, and I swept it outside. It didn't look like it was moving much, so it was either stunned, or close to death. I'll check in the morning to see if its dead body is still in the same spot on my deck.

And it didn't quite stop there...later in the evening, Zuzu was standing/staring at our mini wine fridge in the kitchen. I pulled the fridge out and there was no mouse in sight (but possibly some mouse droppings). I suspect that now that she's gotten a "taste" for mice, that she's now in some sort of "active" mode, looking for any sign of more mice.

CT-Scott wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:46 pm Well, things have gotten interesting...

After catching her first mouse ever (sometime between last night and this morning), our gray cat (Zuzu) caught yet *another* mouse this evening. I was busy in the basement fixing something and I heard my wife and daughter yell to me about it. By the time I came upstairs, my daughter had a cardboard box covering the mouse. Apparently Zuzu wasn't too happy that they had taken away her toy. They told me that they were in the other room when they heard what sounded like a squealing mouse, got up, and saw Zuzu with the mouse in her mouth and swinging it around.

When I got upstairs, my daughter with the cardboard box was near our rear slider, so I got a broom, opened the slider, told her to lift the box, and I swept it outside. It didn't look like it was moving much, so it was either stunned, or close to death. I'll check in the morning to see if its dead body is still in the same spot on my deck.

And it didn't quite stop there...later in the evening, Zuzu was standing/staring at our mini wine fridge in the kitchen. I pulled the fridge out and there was no mouse in sight (but possibly some mouse droppings). I suspect that now that she's gotten a "taste" for mice, that she's now in some sort of "active" mode, looking for any sign of more mice.

You do have a "hunter / killer"!

We'll have to see if the mice in your neighborhood have the same communications systems that the mice in mine seem to have. As I stated earlier, after the two killings / murders in my house this past winter , the word seems to have spread among all the mice in my neighborhood that my house is not a safe one to enter.

Vinny

MangoMan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 8:30 am

CT-Scott wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 11:46 pm Well, things have gotten interesting...
Zuzu

My Shih-tzu's name is Zoe, but everyone calls her ZoZo. Too funny.

She's named after the youngest daughter in "It's a Wonderful Life."

ha! Is that real? The cat’s mask?

I don't know if it's real or not, but it's a very skillful and hilarious shop if it isn't.

EDIT honestly, the original people were hilarious for putting a mask on a cat too, if real. Hilarious either way. I'll bet they had a sense of humor, taking a family portrait (expensive) in masks.

(from another thread)

yankees60 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 12:54 pm Dualstow!

New {avatar} a rabbit??!!

Nah, it's the same cat. :-)
A closeup of her front paws which she is employing as her pillow.
You can see her nose pointing left and the black background behind her face is the tip of her tail.

yankees60 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:07 pm Since I have 19 total pets I thought I'd split this up into three posts....

Cute pets! Thanks for sharing!

dualstow wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 12:57 pm (from another thread)

yankees60 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 12:54 pm Dualstow!

New {avatar} a rabbit??!!

Nah, it's the same cat. :-)
A closeup of her front paws which she is employing as her pillow.
You can see her nose pointing left and the black background behind her face is the tip of her tail.

That is because you know what it is. I've made it huge to cover my entire 23" monitor and I cannot see what you are saying. So, if you had told me that it was a rabbit, I'd have no reason to dispute you. The tail is quite blurry in the picture.

Vinny

Correct- I would not expect you or anyone else to know what it is at first glance and without a description.
A rabbit was not an unreasonable guess.

That is hilarious, Vinny! Our cat spends a fair amount of time under a framed David Bowie poster.
^Lily is looking great as always.^

Smith1776 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:04 am 27E23857-CAC6-4F4B-97BB-CCAB39A11D98.png

She always looks like she belongs to some "royalty" within the cat family!

Vinny