This time of the year our cat, Woody, gets pretty bored. We try not to let him out after dark because we don't know what predators may be lurking in the woods around our house. Woody is no pansy, though. He REALLY wants to be out there.
But we're sticking to our guns, and after dark, he gets to go into the garage, but no further. That works out pretty well, but he tends to stay only a few minutes and then knocks at the door to come in again. Normally that isn't a huge problem - gets me out of my chair and moving - that's important. But he's a hunter, and we still don't have any sure way of telling if he has a mouse in his maw.
It happened again night before last. Woody knocked, I let him in after very close inspection, but on his way through the kitchen, he dropped off a mouse. I happened to be a little in front of him, and managed to use some pretty clever foot work to keep the mouse from escaping into the livingroom. The mouse went behind a wastebasket in one corner of the kitchen. While Fred kept him in the corner, I got gloves for both of us, then Fred reached along both sides of the wastebasket, expecting to capture the mouse in the corner. Instead, the mouse went up the sleeve of his sweater - on the outside, fortunately. I was able to capture the mouse about at Fred's elbow.
Woody was all excited about the rumpus, but no help at all. It was raining a little, but I waited outside for Fred to get a flashlight because I wanted to be sure I actually had the mouse cupped in my gloved hands - I couldn't feel any movement at all and began to wonder if I had actually caught him. When I opened my hands we saw the mouse drop to the ground and scamper off into the underbrush, unharmed.
We wonder if it's the same mouse that got caught by the tail back in November. Probably not, but I suppose on some other cold, wet night he'll be back in the garage again and likely Woody will be "on duty" and catch him again and we may have another exciting experience. It's his nature - it's what cats do. We just have to be better at spotting when he has game in his mouth.
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