Cats Waking Us Up Too Damned Much!

Hopefully this link will work.

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/lolcats/share/8229369856

Way way back in time when Mr Bep and I started dating, he shared his small apartment in NYC with a female cat. Because it was a small apartment, he kept a (small) wine rack under his bed. The first night I stayed over, the cat expressed her disapproval by waiting until everyone was asleep and then creeping under the bed and carefully, slowly, pushing the bottles of wine out of the rack. And then rolling them back and forth across the floor.

A year or so later, after I had moved in, I kept a garment bag (wrapped in a Hefty bag to keep the dust off of it) under the bed. The day before I had to leave for a business trip I pulled out the garment bag and HOLY PORTAL OF HELL, it stank! REEKED. Turns out lovely Miss Kitten had been quietly catching and killing mice and stuffing their little corpses inside the Hefty bag, where they would putrefy without drying out. We tracked down a guy in the city who specialized in getting "difficult" odors out of things. He called us a day later: "Please come get this damn suitcase."

Years and years of uneasy detente with that sly little lady.

Beppolina, you win. That beats the pigeon one of our cats eviscerated and left under the wicker couch on our porch, dripping blood down the porch floor.

LOL!!!!!!

beppolina! Hysterical! Preserving mouse corpses? Tell me, was she part Egyptian Mau?

Everybody needs a place to keep their treasures.

My parents' cat brought a baby bunny into their house the other week -- she was probably pretty proud of herself, but my father pried open her mouth and released the poor bunny, who immediately scampered away. He said she kind of sulked off after that. He went to put his shoes on a couple of hours later and discovered that she had puked right in his shoes. Probably not a coincidence.

Better that than the dead mouse a certain cat left in my bedroom slipper one night. Unfortunately, the gift was not discovered until I put my foot in said slipper the following morning.

EEK! I do remember one morning when I came downstairs in the house in West Orange and found a mouse body at the bottom of the stairs, sans head. Anya was a very good hunter. And I never did find the head. Gulp.

When I still had Pooh, I had an apartment in Brooklyn down the street from a demolition site. Of course, all the, er, wildlife was scrambling to find new homes, and they loved my building. One morning I got up and walked into the living room to see Pooh sitting there with a mouse tail dangling from her mouth. I popped her on the back, the way you would if someone was choking just a little, and POP! Out came the whole mouse, dripping wet and terrified.

I used to live in a tiny pre-colonial era cottage by the river. The floor in the utility room was just dirt. Fortunately, Felicity was an excellent mouser. One time she brought a very alive mouse upstairs and dropped it on my bed while I was fast asleep---that was a wake up call I will never forget. And while she was a good mouser, she did impose limits on what she would hunt.

One day I was stretched out on the couch, reading, and the house was very quiet. I vaguely noticed that I heard Felicity eating her dry food, but then I realized that she was sitting on my feet. I padded into the kitchen,the cat leading the way (in that "I have no idea where you are going, but follow me. I will take you there" way that cats have) We both stopped short when we saw a mole feasting on Felicity's kibble. The mole didn't even give us a backward glance. I looked at Felicity and said:Go get him! I clearly heard her say: Please! I am NOT that sort of cat!

I guess I'm glad Mr. mjh is allergic to cats.

mjh said:
I guess I'm glad Mr. mjh is allergic to cats.

Nah, you're really not glad. You're jealous of us and our stories. ;-)

Calli, wasn't there a French general who said, "There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them there"? Sounds like Felicity. Or any cat, really.

Hmm, well her response to the mole was trés la Chat!

Living in Arlington, MA I had two cats--Micah, an 18 pound (all muscle!) monster of a Tuxedo, and Megan, a 5 pound hellion of a Tortoise Shell. One day I was watching TV in the living room with the two of them sleeping on chairs near me. A mouse ran through the room, and they both woke up and watched, then went back to sleep!

I jumped up, cornered the mouse, grabbed him by his tail, and dropped him on Micah's chair, telling him to act like a cat already.

He merely looked at the mouse, looked at me, and went back to sleep. The mouse, frozen to the spot, was easy to scoop up and release outdoors near my neighbor's back garden.

So goes the life of a well-fed cat.

Mittens is dumb as a door knob in most ways (wife does not like name picked by daughter so calls him Milton because of his personality) but he is good mouser. (He brother is the brains of the operation).

Eli was a big cat but let mice eat his food.

PeggyC, I know where the mouse's head went, and I suspect you do, too.

Good mousers are raised, not born. If kittens have access to the outdoors, past the age of 5 or 6 weeks and allowed to stay with their mother for more that 5 or 6 weeks, mom teaches them to hunt. Kittens who are taken from their mothers early,right after weaning, may never learn to hunt.

Tom_Reingold said:
PeggyC, I know where the mouse's head went, and I suspect you do, too.

I can't hear you, la la la-la-la-la, la-la-la LA la...

To segue from Calliope's comment - our cat did not know how to hunt. My husband had rescued him years before we met when he was a tiny kitten. He (the cat not my husband) would happily chase string, but never crouched or waggled his butt. I suggested that my husband model proper hunting behavior for the cat, but he always refused ; - )

LOL!

Well, now, finally an organization for cat lovers!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/us/at-catcon-breaking-a-stereotype-in-ears-and-whiskers.html?ref=todayspaper

EBennett said:
but never crouched or waggled his butt. I suggested that my husband model proper hunting behavior for the cat, but he always refused ; - )

Funny, that is how I caught my wife!

And the woman who tapes a live gecko to her forehead says: "This is not a silly circus act."

I love cats, but really...?????

mfpark, to address your original issue, perhaps place one of these outside your bedroom door.

http://www.sears.com/havahart-spray-away-motion-activated-sprinkler-animal-repellent/p-01298081000P?sid=IDx01192011x000001&kpid=01298081000&pla=&kispla=01298081000P&mktRedirect=y

Trying to make the carpet grow, as well as repelling the cats? ;-D