As mentioned before (in posts such as this one), we share our house with three feline companions. Winston has always been our problem child, usually by his attitude that litter boxes are optional equipment. He’s also the original scaredy-cat, almost always looking around wide-eyed and running away from everything, including us.

Last night GoddessJ, who seldom gets to bed before 4am and often later, woke me around 4:30. (Of course, she got my evil twin Skippy — he usually comes out when I’m awakened from a sound sleep — but she managed to get past him.) It seems that Winston had managed to catch himself a mouse, and she wanted me to dispose of it.

We’re not sure how long he’d had it before she discovered it. It was quite dead by that point, and he was sitting next to it, giving it the occasional nudge with paw or nose as if hoping that it would move again, and looking very pleased with himself. Most cats of my acquaintance would have started eating it, but he’d never seen a mouse before in his entire nine years of life; it didn’t look or smell anything like the cat food he’d always eaten, so the thought apparently never crossed his mind.

After praising the mighty hunter, I examined the diminutive corpse… its skin hadn’t been torn or pierced anywhere that I could see, and there was no blood on it except around the mouth (presumably from internal injuries). He obviously hadn’t wanted to hurt it, just play with it, and he was as careful in doing so as he knew how to be. Unfortunately for the mouse, he’d never had a playmate that much smaller than he, and didn’t realize how fragile they were.

(We’re not sure where he caught it. We found him at the top of the basement stairs with it, just outside the kitchen, but we haven’t seen any evidence of mice anywhere in the house since we moved in a week ago. It was very small, maybe half to two-thirds the size of the full-grown mice that I’ve seen, so we’re wondering if it had just found its way in looking for shelter. I’ve always heard that if you see a mouse, there are probably ten more that you haven’t seen… if so, I feel sorry for them, all three of our guys enjoy play-hunting, and I’m sure they’ll be delighted to turn their skills to the real thing if given the slightest opportunity.)

The most amusing thing about the incident was Winston’s personality change. He wasn’t scared in the least, of anything, even when GoddessJ or I approached him (which is almost unheard-of). And he was all but strutting, as if to say “Look! I managed to catch this! I’m more awesome than you thought!” We’ll have to wait and see whether it lasts. I’m betting it won’t, but I might be surprised. Especially if he finds another. Though in that case, we’ll be calling in the professionals… sorry to deprive you of your fun, Winston, but neither of your humans is willing to tolerate mice, even if you do catch them before they can do any damage.