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Working Hard

January 30th, 2014

Dexter is our workhorse cat around here. While the other two indoor cats sleep peacefully on the sofa, Dexter makes sure no rodent that enters the house leaves again. Here he is with his trophy catch last week.
Dexter and his mouse
sofie
I watched him catch it with speed an precision, it was an amazing thing to see. Having a good mouser is wonderful when live in an older less than sealed home!

Do you ever get mice in your house?

17 Comments to “Working Hard”
  1. Adelina Anderson on January 30, 2014 at 7:13 am

    We use to get mice. One autumn and winter we had mice just about once a week. My husband did a great job of sealing up any and all spaces that mice to get into – now we get none in the house. Cats aren’t too happy about it though. For a year we had flying squirrels in the attic. We were constantly trapping them (alive) and moving them across them an hour a way.

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  2. Adriana on January 30, 2014 at 8:18 am

    Our cat Nimbus (who could be Dexter’s twin) is too a great mouse hunter. I’ve also seen him catch chipmunks and squirrels! However, whenever we come back from a trip we have to look around before letting the kids in the house. We never know where we will find remains of his trophies. :P

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  3. Nebraska Dave on January 30, 2014 at 8:36 am

    Susy, no mice in my house. In 30 years there’s only been one mouse in the garage. I saw the little bugger run in the garage when the door was open. It disappeared behind the garage stuff never to be seen again until I trapped the little devil. Those little mice can’t resist peanut butter on a trap. There’s a couple cats that roam the neighborhood so maybe that’s why there’s no mice our houses. Spiders? Now that’s another story.

    Have a great mouse finding day and good hunting Dexter.

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    • Susy on January 30, 2014 at 8:59 am

      Luckily our two non-mousing cats love to catch spiders. Once we got them there are no spiders in the house.

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  4. Lorna on January 30, 2014 at 8:40 am

    We live in an 1840’s farmhouse with LOTS of winter mice. It seems they start showing up every time I’m about ready to apply for that residential kitchen license! Our first cat, Max, was an indoor/outdoor cat that went missing 8 months ago. He was a great mouser (and chipmunks, and birds, and whatever else crossed his path). Our new cat is a young female who is strictly indoors for now. I’m hoping she’ll earn her keep like her predecessor. Meanwhile, the neighbor’s cats keep the critters out of my garden.

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  5. amy svob on January 30, 2014 at 9:33 am

    Never have had any since we have izzie but we’ve had dead rabbits and mice brought in lol

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  6. Kara on January 30, 2014 at 9:33 am

    No mice here, but we do get the occasional junebug or roach (the big tree roaches that are so common in the South). Both of my cats will hunt them down – but Maggie is the true bug slayer. Phoebe just plays with them and then walks away when she gets bored. Maggie makes a meal of them. :)

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  7. Diana Holly on January 30, 2014 at 10:28 am

    Your post is so timely for me. We moved into an old farmhouse two days ago and we have a serious mouse problem. We’ve already dispatched of three mice. We have two cats and though they’ve never had the opportunity to hunt mice in the past, they seem to have a good prey drive and I think they will make excellent mousers. My concern is that they might eat a mouse that has been poisoned. We only use snap traps, but I don’t know what the neighbors use – I haven’t gotten to know them yet. Any suggestions?

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  8. Erika Keller on January 30, 2014 at 10:37 am

    Mice, chipmunks, and baby snakes. And they like to leave us presents under the bed to find many days later when they become odiferous.

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  9. sherri on January 30, 2014 at 11:25 am

    On one of the last nice days of the year we watched a mouse run right in our open back door! Since then we’ve placed traps everywhere and not caught anything except the dog!

    I keep trying to convince my husband that we need a mouser, but he really doesn’t like indoor cats (primarily because of litter boxes). We still occasionally see that mouse running around (and you KNOW he has friends).

    Reply to sherri's comment

    • bonnie k. on January 31, 2014 at 5:58 pm

      I don’t know what you’ve used for bait, but I use a raw peanut (shelled) in a snap trap and have had great success. Occasionally, a trap that doesn’t have a sensitive enough trigger might not spring. I discard any trap that has missing bait more than once. I have also used different brands of snap traps; some work better than others. Mice tend to follow the walls, so set the trap against a wall (perpendicular to the wall).

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  10. Donna A. on January 30, 2014 at 1:45 pm

    That’s wonderful! I know that I will be looking for a mouser when I find that perfect house… I’ll have a dog to protect my outdoor animals and a cat to keep the critters out. Hehe.
    Good boy, Dexter!

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  11. Norma on January 30, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    Go Dexter, what a good cat!
    When we lived in the country we would set around a dozen traps for mice a night baited with crust of bread and peanut butter. Often in summer they would be full, then we would throw them down the backyard for the birds to eat. Our cat was great too, but overwhelmed.
    Kara, years ago I found a great trap idea for roaches. Just get a tall glass jar, bout 10 inches, dribble a little olive oil on inside top edge, then drop in few pieces banana skin. I leave them in the shade outside front and back door. They fall in at night and can’t get out. Then in morn I tip out and wack. At times I’ve caught more than10. Just refresh banana when very dry. It really works.Hope this helps.

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  12. Jennifer Fisk on January 30, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    I have not had a mouse problem since I began employing ME Coon cats. Between Rocky’s death and Winston’s maturity, I’ve had to employ some snap traps but for the most part I’ve been rodent free. I did find a mole in the garage the other day obviously Winston knows his job.

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  13. KimH on January 31, 2014 at 1:02 am

    Knock on wood, I havent seen any for the last 2 years.. I think someone who moved in with us for a short while brought some with them a few years ago.. they stored their stuff in our basement & thats the only place they were, thank God. It took me 2 full years though to get 100% rid of them.
    I used several different kind of baits but sadly enough, what worked best was the large sticky pads.. Once they’re on there, they rarely get off, though one did once, dang it. I keep different kinds of traps down there.. dont want a repeat of that..

    Prior to that, any house I’ve lived in that was surrounded by countryside always got mice in the winter.. they get cold too and just want to warm up for the winter. ;) Never any huge infestations though.. just one or two, enough to make you crazy! :D

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  14. Chris on February 3, 2014 at 6:24 pm

    Are you sure that’s not a hamster? That thing is huge! :) We have two indoor cats and yes, we do occasionally get a mouse in the house but they don’t last long!!
    When we lived in the city many yrs. ago we actually had a rat in the basement but he was waay too big for our cats, so out came a rat trap! Then we moved! :)

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  15. laura on February 4, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    I can’t get rid of them. My mouser died in 2007 and my current kitty is more interested in her food bowl than in catching mice. Ugh…

    blessings
    ~*~

    Reply to laura's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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