Hello. I have a question about cats and mice.

[Writer]

Yesterday, my cat Gandalf sat outside at the door with a furry thing wiggling in its mouth. On closer inspection I realized it was a mouse. I let him inside, then immediately chased him downstairs as the poor little mouse squeaked in his mouth. I found him with the mouse downstairs... the poor thing was wriggling on the floor, traumatized and I assume injured. I scooped the mouse into my hand and studied it - I saw no blood, just matted, wet fur on its back and what might have been a broken right front leg. I pet him, but he was in shock, and he shook back and forth, periodically cracking open his eyes to look at me. He moved a little, but not much. I was surprised, given the size of Gandalf's jaws, that he didn't draw blood from the little creature - the jerk was batting it about, trying to play with it before I took the mouse from him.

I put the mouse in a small box with lining and went outside to the open space behind my house - where Gandalf likely snatched the poor little thing. I nestled the box within the tall grass and semi-covered the box with thatch. I didn't know what else to do.

A few hours later, after class, I returned to the spot where I placed the box, and the mouse no longer was inside. I saw no blood, and the box itself didn't look disturbed. Could the little mouse actually have survived being captured by Gandalf? Or was it more likely that a bird or some other creature got him first?

[HopeHoops]

1. HOLY SHIT!

My cat is named Gandalf also! He is an 18.5 lb bed lump most of the time, but that's his name. As for the mouse, they can jump and climb like you can't believe so it probably got out. If he didn't crush any bones or draw blood, it was probably fine.

[BikeWriter]

2. Pasteurella is especially deadly to birds, to mice? I'm not certain.

Dog and cat saliva can contain any of more than 100 different germs that can make you sick. Pasteurella bacteria, the most common, can be transmitted through bites that break the skin causing serious, and sometimes fatal, diseases such as blood infections and meningitis.
http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/microbes/understanding/transmission/transmissionWays.htm
Pasteurella is especially deadly to birds, to mice? I'm not certain.

[TZ]

7. Mice don't get Pasteurella

In fact mice are much more likely to transmit infectious disease to other animals (LCM, hantaa virus, GD7, Ectromelia (MOUSE POX) )than cats are. If you had even bothered with basic biology you would know this much. BTW, did you know that CHICKENS are a natural resevoir of Pateurella? Our testing for that bacteria was based on the chickens who bore it.
I worked in a rodent health testing lab for almost 9 years. Rodents are disease carriers/transmitters. Cats...not so much. :eyes:
BTW good work on posting a link about HUMAN INFECTIOUS DISEASES to support your "theories" about those evil disease ridden cats.

[LaurenG]

14. Good grief!

:eyes: Do you feel better now? Meanness - I guess it's the only way some people communicate. This could have been a great teaching/learning opportunity...

[LeftyMom]

3. That was The Rapture.

Please don't tell the fundies. They think they're going.

[no name no slogan]

8. THREAD OVER

There's no point reading any further. Congratulations, you win a series of tubes.

[Midlodemocrat]

4. Trying to work up some compassion for the mouse, but failing miserably.

It's a fucking rodent. Good for the cat.

[CreekDog]

12. but that mouse had little babies!!!

of which she ate 3.

[Sky Masterson]

5. I'd like to think he did.

I want to believe that his little mousy friends came with a little stretcher and took him to their mouse hospital.
I think his wife and 8 babies are huddled around him now as I write this. He is telling them tales of the beast that almost took his life.
Oh..:hi: :pals:

[emilyg]

11. It's 9 babies.

Everyone is fine.

[Sky Masterson]

15. Thank you for the correction

I always forget about little Pete.

[applegrove]

6. A cat of mine once brought in a mouse to my apartment. The mouse escaped. He was hiding in my

bathroom as I kept a closed door between cat and mouse. But I couldn't capture the little critter and I wanted to set it free. So I let my cat capture the mouse one more time (from what I had seen the mouse was not injured at all by my cat the first time). Then I took the mouse from her mouth (no damage this time either) and set the poor little thing free. I think it is quite common that cats don't immediately injure mice. Your mouse probably got away and is somewhere safe.

[BarenakedLady]

9. He could have recovered.

I nursed a mouse through shock before. It looked a goner, but a couple hours later was ready to let go into the wild.

BTW, most times when my cats kill a mouse, they don't draw blood. Most likely break their little backs by batting them around or tire it out until it dies from exhaustion.

[FedUpWithIt All]

10. Cats like to play with mice.

They will capture them, let them go, bat them around a bit, pounce, carry them to another local and begin again. They can be quite cruel while doing it too. It's like they enjoy watching the mouse try and escape before they dash it's hopes again.

I have a cat that likes to drown his little toy mice. He will carry them around for a while but they always end up floating in the water dish in the AM. I suspect he would do the same with a live mouse.

[sohndrsmith]

13. Hopefully you aren't in an area where lyme/ehrlichiosis/babesiosis

are epidemic, because the white-footed deermouse has become a primary carrier of the ticks that transmit these vector-borne diseases, and they are not something to mess with. Really. In the ecological study facility a few miles from home, they have found that these mice are often carrying many, many infected ticks. Deer don't walk into your home, but mice live in farmhouses and probably many more suburban homes, too. That's freaking frightening.

It's absolutely possible that the mouse was in shock and whether injured or not was able to flee. I've seen a baby cottontail literally die of fright, and I've seen mice and voles, etc., take off like a bullet after appearing incapacitated.

Yes, cats like to play with their "catch", it's hard to watch even though it's hardly malicious. I can't speak of the scientific provenance of this, but our cats seemed to enjoy leaving half a mouse or other prize in the most obvious place - as if they were boasting or expecting reward. My guess is that most cat owners have experienced this. I don't know what my cats' true motivation was, but it seemed like they really wanted us to know about it. Luckily, these "treasures" were always left in extremely obvious places. Except the time my cat (who lives with my mother) decided to bring her live toy into my mother's bed and lose it. Sorry - I still giggle. After I worry about the bloody ticks.