Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for August 01, 2024

Fresh mouse delivered to your door.

I’ve been there….

Bad Fluffy! No treats for you.

Why do they do that? Why do they bring them in alive and turn them loose?! One of ours turned a very big rat loose. I said to my husband, “We’re moving.” He set a big trap and caught the poor thing that night. We didn’t have any live traps.

☺ SURPRISE!! ☺

“I’m home! And I brought dinner!!!!”

Ours brought in a baby rabbit. Those things have about a 130db scream that pierces your brain.

Ours was different. She brought a chop bone one time. Another time she brought a live moth and laid it at my feet. Think I thanked her. I told her it was okay, she could have it.

Sophie (canine) came into my office through her dog door as I was paying attention to my computer. She sat quietly to my right rear until I realized she was back there. I turned to see a live black snake hanging out of her mouth. As my mouth dropped open, so did hers. The snake slithered off to parts unknown until a few months later when we found it stretched across the upstairs hallway. It was removed unharmed and without incident.

I delivered pizza to a house one time, and their cat was on the front porch with a bird in its mouth.

If your cat doesn’t have a toy she wants to play with, she’ll improvise.

kitty brought you a present

Our girl brought in a Robin once. She must have caught it just when it was about to poop because it did a lot of that all over the house until we were able to scoot it out the door.

Aw … wasn’t that nice – a surprise special delivery.

- and it’s like the stork – it’s a Live Delivery.

This is exactly what happend when you have a pet door. They can easily bring home “presents”

When I was little my family had a cat just the opposite of that. She’d eat all the mice we caught in the mouse traps, but she wouldn’t even chase one herself.

He never thought he’d have to Eek! out a living.

It took a looooong time to convince my adolescent cat that I really did not enjoy moving the furniture around in the middle of the night to chase and kill a mouse she brought in. She thought it was a team sport.

The only thing that worked was to hold the cat flap closed when I saw her coming with prey and keep it closed until she dropped the mouse.

She figured out I only wanted dead mice. I praise her for bringing them in and quietly dispose of them at once.

This is real

I haven’t had a cat bring a live animal inside, but I had a cat catch 6 mice in a row and bring all the way upstairs to drop them to my feet. The first one was dead.