I’m beginning to wonder if we do in fact have more mice in here than the one the cat (re) captured and killed the other day. Now and then she hangs about around the kitchen staring underneath the fridge which is usually a sign of something… though we’re yet to discover what.
Today she again wandered around yowling which I have only *now* begun to realise is associated with her feeling pleased with herself and sure enough… hanging out of her maw was yet another mouse – this time already clearly deceased.
She is able to carry them indoors because I’ve been leaving the back screen door open. It’s really beautiful weather this time of year, not ‘hot’ but a relatively balmy 19ºC and sunny and I like to ‘air’ the house whenever possible – you can get sick of too much life under air conditioning. This means she is free to meander in, out, and around at will.
Point being that if as before she carries in a live mouse and releases it, it wouldn’t be spotted by me and would probably be ignored by her since she isn’t catching mice from hunger.
So do we have mice indoors? Well I can’t really tell. I’ve been cleaning around the cupboards and counter tops but so far there have been no signs of mouse droppings (which other than chewed clothes or produce boxes is the only way to tell short of actually catching one! ).
I’ll be keeping a close eye out now just in case. It’s bad enough the cockroaches think they deserve a home for the winter without an influx of mice to keep them company! We can spray for roaches and kill of any that manage the incursion, it’s not so easy to control mice… especially not when the cat helps them through the defences!!
The Eclectic Interweb 
Having recently acquired 2 cats I can sympathise. I am now having the pleasure of little ‘presents’ being left for me to find all over the kitchen. They are now so adept at it (and living in the countryside as we do) this is now a daily occurrence, I have had a mix of surprises so far, some deceased some not. The health of the captured animal seems to depend on what time I return home which leads to me to think that they must catch them early and then spend the next 6-8 hours tormenting the poor creatures until they are either crushed in the mouth of one of the cats or dies from a heart attack. In either case I am slightly disturbed by the fact that by ‘rescuing’ the cats I have doomed the local mice\squirrel\frog etc.. population to a pretty nasty demise, for which I cannot help but feel a sense of guilt..!!!
Have you considered having them de-clawed and having all their teeth extracted??
If you shave them as well you might be able to pass them off as large lizards??
I rest my case m’lud…!!!!
(last words of the prosecution to ensure you get sectioned for life due to you obvious level of insanity.!)
😉
Our old one used to regularly bring us all manner of detritus including one large rat, a duck (I kid you not), a rabbit, the usual selection of birds, mice and voles and she also had the unsavoury habit of taking them into next door’s kitchen and killing them there as well which did not entirely endear us to our neighbours.
And now we’ve got 2 more, like Matt’s rescued. How I ever aquare this away with being a member of the RSPB I do not know!!