• @nesc@lemmy.cafe
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      485 months ago

      They rarely need to in the city, also those that weren’t taught by other cats most of the time won’t kill the mouse just torture it or scare.

        • @nesc@lemmy.cafe
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          245 months ago

          You are lucky, in my previous flat there were hoarders-alcoholics that lived on the next floor, one day they brought mice with whatever shit they decided to take. At first they were contained on their floor, but after a while they were everywhere. Cat played with them at first >_< and then got bored. After 10 or so that traps killed (in a month) I moved out.

          • Zement
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            5 months ago

            Your experience reminded me of “Tom,” the farm cat who lived in the corn silo on my great aunt’s farm. He avoided/hated children but tolerated the adults who worked there. Depending on the season, he killed multiple mice a day, ate only their livers (leaving behind a trail of bodies), and used crippled mice to track down the hidden others. Tom was a true professional—and honestly, quite terrifying.

            Edit: My aunt “paid” him with leftover spaghetti, ground meat, and eggs, as well as a warm spot by the oven in the winter (if he chose to stay there). He was “semi-feral”—never going near the house during the summer months.

            Edit2 + Spelling,Typos,Grammar,

              • @MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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                75 months ago

                Ive always wondered about the poor villagers who lived in tigers territory. Every night a kitty comes out to play.

              • @BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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                55 months ago

                We had an indoor/outdoor cat growing up that liked to hunt squirrels. He was so good at it that the squirrels had a special cry for him. Anyways, he liked to leave nothing but their heads (with spine and tail still attached) on our front door step. I miss the little serial killer

        • @BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
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          95 months ago

          Mice and some other pests have evolved an instinctual aversion to the smell of cats, it triggers their fear response. Just having the cats around might have been good enough.

      • Mellibird
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        75 months ago

        I feel like depends on the cat. I found mine as a list kitten that we assumed got outside and then was starving and almost dead. He’s always been N indoor cat. Had never seen a mouse in the 8 years he was alive. I go out of town for a day and night and come back to a decapitated mouse in the apt. Fool took care of shit without even knowing. Then years later, we move into a house and a mouse gets in some how. My cat finds the mouse, kills it, walks around with it, then drops it in the hallway for us to clean up. If he had been taught how to catch mice when he was a kitten, I he wouldn’t have been starving to death. But when a mouse showed up, he knew exactly what to do.

    • Apathy Tree
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      385 months ago

      They -can- do that yes. Whether or not they will choose to, however, is anyone’s guess.

      • @peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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        125 months ago

        They will have a joyous time with it. And you might find eviscerated mice under your couch one day. But my two dumbass fur balls just thought they were awesome toys.

        Never figured out quite when they stopped coming in. The only really humane way to kill em is snap traps. I probably went through a couple dozen of them before they stopped showing up.

        I was against using poisoned food traps because the last thing I wanted was my cat consuming a poisoned mouse. But, since our whole neighborhood had a problem with the mice, I wouldn’t be too surprised if a neighbor did it.

        • @AtariDump@lemmy.world
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          55 months ago

          Snap traps in a brown paper bag baited with peanut butter.

          When you catch something, curl up the top of the bag and throw it all in the trash.

          • @peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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            45 months ago

            Ooooh that paper bag idea is nifty.

            We actually discovered something that worked far better than peanut butter - Reese’s peanut butter cups. You break off a little piece, squish it into a ball, and place it on the bait lever. Not a single trap misfired once we switched to that.

      • TheLastHero [he/him]
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        75 months ago

        Even if you have a lazy cat, mice have since learned to avoid the smell of cat pheromones. So just having a fat furball laying around will make it more likely the local mice go bother your neighbor instead.

        • huf [he/him]
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          15 months ago

          eeeeh, it can go the other way. i dont think i would’ve ever had mice in this flat without the cat. but she likes to catch mice, bring them inside totally unharmed and let them go. and then watch them. chase them. sit on top of them. she doesnt eat them because i guess she never had to eat them.

          and then i end up catching the mouse since i dont want it loose in the flat at night, and i dont want to find a rotting mouse corpse 2 weeks later (this has happened at least twice).

    • Fonzie!
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      14 months ago

      How do you have so many mice?

      Sounds like your apartment smells like leftovers; we had mice sometimes until we started to do dishes religiously and take out trash religiously. Or well, about as frequently as our parents do it.

  • @salvaria@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1295 months ago

    Oh sure, when the cat walks into a house and wants to live there, they’re all “omg it’s so cute” and “let’s go buy it food and a bed”, but when I do it, they’re all “who the hell are you?” and “leave or I’m calling the cops” :(

  • @elbucho@lemmy.world
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    975 months ago

    Humans are just exceptionally weak to cute. If aliens ever show up and try to conquer us, we’re going to be so screwed if they happen to be adorable.

  • Annoyed_🦀
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    535 months ago

    The fact that only two creature in this world that will approach another creature 10 times bigger than them just so they get adopted is pretty impressive. That’s how i adopted my 4th cat, little baby dude just came out from under a car and yell at me until i pick him up.

    • @MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Covert cat distribution network, working as intended.

      In my opinion cats should never be kept as singles. They need social interaction with another cat, even if they don’t like each other. It’s not as bad as guinea pigs who will literally die from depression if kept alone, but it’s similar.

      • @selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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        35 months ago

        I wouldn’t say “never” because, for me, it’s better to shelter them instead of leaving them outside. But yeah, ideally at least two cats. I’ve only had two cats, both stray, the first one tried to play with our feet when he was the only one in home as he plays with the second now.

  • @Aeri@lemmy.world
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    425 months ago

    That makes it sound like the cat domesticated humanity not “The cat self domesticated itself”

  • @nesc@lemmy.cafe
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    315 months ago

    They are funny, don’t really need a lot of space and training, and look pretty. Ofc I will go and by whatever.

  • Yardy Sardley
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    265 months ago

    Did cats domesticate humans, or did Toxoplasma gondii domesticate both of us?

  • @buttfarts@lemy.lol
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    5 months ago

    When I was a kid Mr Kitty unilaterally moved in despite belonging to the neighbors across the street and the stern objections of my father armed with a squirt gun.

  • @FoxyFerengi@lemm.ee
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    215 months ago

    I did my best to take a cat home today when I was at the local landfill. I don’t even have space for another cat, it’s just freezing here and he looked extra pathetic. He decided the dumpster was safer and u honestly can’t blame him xD

    • @MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      There’s been a little baby girl coming around here, underweight, some kind of skin problem. She has always been an outside cat and belonged to my neighbor who died. My wife says we already have four so we can’t bring a street cat in that’s going to fight them.

      She’s right, but sometimes little girl comes up when I’m smoking and gets warm laying in my lap and I want to keep her so much.