Today, my girlfriend's cat caught a mouse and brought it to me! She (the cat, not the gf) had been obsessively sitting next to the kitchen radiator for four hours, so I knew something was up. Eventually there was a loud commotion... and shortly after, the cat trotted over and dropped off a mouse in front of me:
Not my gf's cat, but very similar. The mouse immediately took off running for its life - it was alive!! The cat immediately caught it again and held it in her mouth for a while... before releasing it again to repeat its little game.
I've always thought of dogs as a more masculine pet, and cats as a more feminine one. But my gf's cat is a hardcore killer! I may have to revise my take on cats.
Eventually I took pity on the mouse and trapped it in a glass jar. Now what? This has actually happened a number of times before - most mousetraps are non lethal, so you'll end up with a mouse covered in glue. Even this mouse looks partly injured by the cat, and I don't think it would last too long in the wild.
Here are the options:
- Give the mouse back to the cat and let her finish it off.
- Leave it in the jar until it stops moving.
- Euthanize the mouse (in the past, I've seen people put caught mice in the freezer... or flush them down the toilet).
- Release the mouse outdoors, so it has a chance of survival (in someone else's apartment)... but most likely will die outside.
- Nurse it back to health and name it Stuart Little and write a children's book about it.
I never know what to do with mice when they're injured and trapped. I feel like I owe it to the mouse to give it a warrior's death, instead of pretending it has a chance to live and releasing it outdoors. If it's going to die, I'd rather kill it myself than pretend it's going to live outdoors or star in a children's book. But maybe that's just me.
What should I do with my injured mouse?
Comments (56)
euthanize it. put the poor thing out of its misery.
Personally, I would drive it to a field type area and let it go. Mother Nature will handle it from there.
I always drown them.
The cat is a hardcore killer? Most people who have cats only have them to kill mice. Why do you think they have cats on farms? To kill the mice so the don't eat the animal feed.
eat it. like how asian ppl would :D
feed it to an injured snake?
let it go outside lol
aww poor thing! i would probably just let it free somewhere, because i personally could never kill anything in my life unless it's like a cockroach or something haha
I would give it to that cat personally. I think that if the cat caught it it was meant for the cat to have in the first place. Then again letting it go in the wild doesn't sound as bad either. So it would depend on my mood on the day I suppose.
Vet ER! STAT.
since i love animals so much.....how about a combination of 2, 4 and/or 5. You can keep it until it stops moving in that jar, then you can "nurse it back to health" and then let it back out into the wild.
OR you could just let it back in the wild injured and probably stumble upon it again due to some other animal taking advantage of its injuries.
Either way it's kind of a lose-lose situation. Good luck with that.
give it to the cat. it worked hard enough to get it.
it's just a mouse. they breed constantly.
animal control, i'm pretty sure. they'll kill it if they have to , but if not they have everything to help it, whereas you might have to spend money to nurse it back to health.
Let it go. You're not a vet, so you probably can't judge if it's going to live or die. You might be killing a perfectly viable mouse.
Hey, it's your karma.
Nurse it back to health so it can contact the rest of its rat swarm and amass a ferocious rat army!
omg. let the cat eat it please.
Well, don't put it in the freezer, that is cruel because it will suffer for quite some time. It you are going to euthanize it do it with alcohol (rubbing) or chop its head off. I mean, if you had to choose between those three ways to die, which would you choose?
Personally, I'd prefer getting high off of the rubbing alcohol fumes.
cats do that they bring the mouse to you as a gift!
my grandma use to drown it in boiling water so it will die real fast!
i personally like eating my mice a little on the toasted side....but not burnt, mind you.
I don't understand some people here. I mean, okay -- I can understand feeding a live animal to another animal if it were necessary for the latter animal's survival. But obviously the cat will not starve without the mouse. And cats are notorious for playing with (ie, torturing) their food. At least a snake would finish it off quickly.
I'd say either let it go, or put it out of its misery (ziploc bag will cause it to slowly fall asleep from lack of oxygen), depending on the severity of the injuries.
But giving it back to the cat just to watch it be toyed with to death is, in my opinion, cruel and completely unecessary. Just because "it's a mouse" doesn't mean it can't feel pain and terror.
don't let the cat eat it, it could get sick. I have 2 cats and i know what it's like. If it isn't bad injured let it go but if so just kill it so it doesnt have to suffer
My cat is awesome. Pure hunter. I hardly have feed him cat food. I usually have to in the winter though. He always catchs birds, mice, and rabbits to eat. He'll even eat their bones. I've seen him catch crows too. He often brings me rabbits and bird feet...he doesn't eat everything he kills.
why are you even asking...throw it away!!! yes let it go out in the wild, let it get run over by cars, let it get eaten by that mountain lion *disgusting* dont say your going to keep it as a pet...
I would euthanize it... the freezer does kill them pretty quickly. We do it at work when we have mice who seem to be dying. I work at a pet store by the way.
Put a little gold body armor/helmet on it, sword & sheild, and have gladiator fight with another mouse to see who lives. Also scream in the air "I have everything, and you have Nothingggggg!!!!"
Yes, family guy reference...Choice 3 for me.
freezer.