Love to eat those mousies!

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

The balance of nature.

We have way too many rodents in our neighborhood; squirrels, rabbits, gophers/moles. The hawks do what they can, but in a health ecosystem the felines are the efficient hunters.

Unfortunately, coyotes are efficient predators of house cats so we don't have enough cats roaming the neighborhood to keep the rodents under control. And we don't have enough coyotes to substitute for the cats - we only have enough coyotes to ensure that people who let their cats roam get very skilled at posting "Missing Cat" flyers throughout the neighborhood.

If people weren't paranoid about cougars, maybe they could fill in for the cats, but the cougars have been pushed out.

[Hoc Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Hoc]

The balance of nature.

We have way too many rodents in our neighborhood; squirrels, rabbits, gophers/moles. The hawks do what they can, but in a health ecosystem the felines are the efficient hunters.

When I moved into my current house in Huntington Beach (about 18 years ago), there were strawberry fields right next to our neighborhood. About 10 years ago, they were dug up for the purpose of putting buildings on the land. Apparently hundreds of thousands of mice were living among the strawberries, and they all poured into our neighborhood when the fields were dug up. For about 4 years, I -- and everyone in our neighborhood -- had a mouse problem. They were all over. In the attic, in the garage, and even in the house. Nothing we could do. I hired exterminators who would set traps that caught some of them. Others avoided the traps or replaced the ones that left. I moved the dog food into airtight containers with screw on tops, so that they were no longer jumping out of the bags when I would open them.

The biggest casualty was my new washing machine. 2 days after I replaced the tubes chewed up by the mice, they would chew them up again and the machine would flood the garage. Finally I just gave up and began taking my wash into a laundromat. A few months later, owls began making their nests in the tops of the palm trees of my neighbor across the street. I could hear them flapping around and squeaking at night. After about a year of owls, the mice began to dwindle and slowly disappeared from the neighborhood.

When it was clear that they were truly gone, I called back the washer repairman. The mice had chewed up every hose and all of the insulation in my new washer. So, I had gotten all of about three months of use out of it, and had to throw it away and buy a new one (cheaper than repairing the old one).

I hope never to have that problem again.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Lucky Ozzie was not there he would have killed your cats to eat that mouse.

[JudyS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JudyS]

Jeff is retired now, but in his day he was a killing machine. Just follow the links on the left of the page for his known kills. Who knows how many other prey he handled but that didn't get recorded.

Wow, that is some website. I particularly like this disclaimer: "This Web site contains disgusting/disturbing images, has no value whatsoever, and due to its content should not be viewed by anyone." Something tells me that you're a South Park watcher, Steve!

Can't say that I'm sorry to hear that Jeff is retired. I'm sure that the bird community would agree.

Me, too! I love my cats, but they sure don't seem to agree with my philosophy of nonviolence! (I'm a long-time vegetarian.)

My beloved all-black cat, Squeaky, can't compete with Jeff on sheer number of kills, but he still does pretty well. He has caught mice and chipmunks and has cornered shews; most of these animals were rescued by my husband and probably survived. Also, one of my cats (not sure which one) once caught a bat. Plus, I have found Squeaky stalking a baby raccoon (got him the heck out of there before mama raccoon showed up.)

Squeaky's claim to fame is that he did this while being an ALL-INDOOR cat. Yes, all these animals were inside our house! (The raccoon actually clawed a hole in our ceiling and fell onto our living room floor.) So, Lawren, I will see you one mouse, and up your bid by about 40 mice, a dozen bats, multiple chipmunks and shrews, a toad, seven raccoons (there was a whole family living in our eaves) and one very dead oppossum (all we found was the skeleton.) Ah, the joys of living in a run-down old house!

Kbletzer, we use live traps to catch mice. They are effective (much more so than our cats - the cats only catch a few of the mice) and we seem to have the mice problem under control now. You can buy disposable "tip trap" live traps for less than $2 each. Much safer than poison around children and pets, and far more humane than sticky traps.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Wow, that is some website. I particularly like this disclaimer: "This Web site contains disgusting/disturbing images, has no value whatsoever, and due to its content should not be viewed by anyone." Something tells me that you're a South Park watcher, Steve!

The Rain Forest Episode is a classic in our family.

[JudyS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JudyS]

The Rain Forest Episode is a classic in our family.

Saving the rainforest -- it's totally gay! (Is that the one?)

My favorite is the "Conjoined Fetus Lady" episode.
You've got the strength, you've got the courage
Even with a dead fetus on your head
Carry on, you fight for tomorrow
Dead fetus or no, you'll never let go
You're my conjoined twin, dead thing hangin' off your head woman.

I find South Park pretty violent for my tastes (just like my cats, come to think of it), but I sometimes catch an episode when my husband is watching it.

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

My dog, Abby is a mouser. We had a mouse in the wall of our kitchen in farmhouse in Maine. I came home from work one day and Abby met me with her prize in her mouth. She was so proud. And it was obvious from the bits of mouse on the cabiinets that Abby had played with the body for hours. Ugh.

In fact, my picture is of Abby when we were living in Maine.