Jen sent me this mouse hunting video a few hours ago. The mouse got away. It is still in the house somewhere but it is currently avoiding the kaiju-esque cats.
Now… do videos from Flickr work on WordPress.com? Let’s find out. (note: the embedded video player from Flickr for some reason includes about 10 miles of white space in the actual post. Scroll down… WAY down to see the clip)
I am in the office today. That’s a shame because Jen is sending me play by play updates of the cats playing with a (terrified beyond measure) mouse in the kitchen.
The poor thing doesn’t realize that the cats are trying to play with it. I don’t think the cats are smart enough to know they are supposed to be mouse hunters who eliminate the home invaders. They just see it as a super fun toy.
Jen sent video. I might have to share it. The cats are adorable. The mouse is also adorable, though scared out of its wits by the two gigantic, furry, monsters that are chasing it around.
The last time the cats had a mouse cornered and I wasn’t home Jen was able to drop a bowl over the mouse and the cats lost interest quickly. When I got home I took it outside and set it free. Here’s hoping we can do the same today.
What a nutty kinda day it’s been. Sheesh.
My step son Harry is home from Vermont right now because his car is in the shop and he needed to go to a mechanic near us because he couldn’t get one near his home without having to wait for a month or two. He needs to head back to Vermont tonight, but his car isn’t going to be ready until next week.
He went through his insurance claim (long story that you will not get details on) to get a rental for the next week. At lunch today I drove him to the rental car place to pick up his temp-ride. They told him they needed to call the insurance company to verify our plan will cover the rental because he is under age. The rental agent called them and found their entire system was down. They couldn’t look up our (or anyone’s) policy.
Harry offered to stay at the rental place until it was worked out so that I could go home and get back to work. Fortunately by around 2:40 or so the insurance system issues were cleared up and he was able to drive off in his rental car. All worked out for the best eventually, but talk about annoying!
On an unrelated, less serious, but still annoying note, at around 9:30-10:00 or so this morning both cats snuck their way into the cellar. Both of them! After an hour or so I was able to coax Lily back upstairs but Robin wanted nothing to do with it. A short while later I was trying to bribe Robin upstairs with some treats and Lily ran past me and went back down stairs again! FFFFUUUU!!!! That was just before we had to go to the rental agency!
When I got home I expected them both to be sitting on the stairs waiting for the door to open. Nope. Neither of them were. I got Robin upstairs soon enough, and by 2:00 I had them both upstairs. They both tried to eat a plant, one of them knocked over a box full of guitar gear, they got into just about everything down here. There are so many places for a cat to hide, I was unable to find them on my own. I also had to trip a few mouse traps, just in case they stumbled across them. What a couple of feline jerks, right? Bad kitties!
They are upstairs now though so they are good kitties once again. Still… sheesh!
Okay. Back to work. I have a meeting in nine minutes. Here’s hoping the zaniness is done for the day. I need a nap!
Yesterday, for the second time since we adopted our two cats, Lily and Robin were stalking something. They were spending a lot of time watching underneath the refrigerator. Occasionally they would try to reach under and grab something. There were a couple of times where we could hear something rustling but we didn’t actually see anything.
Last night I woke up at around 3:00am. The cats were freaking out. That’s not terribly unusual as they often get the zoomies over night. This time I could hear some squeaking though. They were hunting and their prey was freaking out. Later, after I finished my exercise and guitar playing, I went into the bedroom and saw them both hovering over something in the attached bathroom. I turned on the light. There was a mouse laying on it’s back. I thought it was dead but it twitched. It was playing dead. I went to get something to pick it up with and while my back was turned it ran for it. The cats chased. I closed the door and let them do their thing.
15 minutes later I opened the door again and the mouse was once again playing dead. I had a broom and a cardboard box on me this time. I swept it into the box and it jumped out. I smacked it with the broom and swept it up again. I took it outside and dropped it on the edge of the woods. It made a run for it. Good riddance, home invader.
Three cheers for the mouse hunters who once again earned their keep and protected their new home! I gave them a handful of treats as a reward for a job well done. Good kitties! Good, good kitties!
Post script: Fuck. I am working in the cellar. A second mouse just poked it’s head out from under the desk drawers next to me. Son of a bitch! Well, we do live in the woods and the weather has been awful for a week now. This is to be expected. Still… asshole mouse.
We aren’t having much luck with the whole integrating the new cat into the house thing. As I was writing the first new cat post, Jen opened up the door to leave Sabrina’s temporary room, and Patches snuck up on her. The two cats stood about three feet apart, looking each other in the eye. Sabrina started to hiss. Patches backed off a few feet and then she started hissing too. We got the door closed without further incident.
Later, we had Ms Patches locked in a bedroom so we let Ms Sabrina wander around. Where was pretty much the first place she went? Patches’ litter box. Oh good. Eventually she did a lap around the house and we got her locked up again. We were feeling confident after that.
Our luck more or less ran out though. Jen took a shift sitting with Sabrina. When she tried to leave the room, Sabrina bolted for the door. I caught her before she got out, picked her up, and placed her back on the bed. Safe. Until she bolted again and slipped out the still opened door. Again, the two kitties faced off. This time Patches didn’t back off and the two of them hissed at each other again. I had to yell to get Patches to break off. This time I managed to pick up Sabrina and get her locked away again.
I’m a little worried about how things will go tomorrow while we are at work. Will they tear through the door to get at each other?
Calm down, ladies!
Inside the Red Head's Head 