Dec 242010
I stepped into the kitchen and saw a standoff between Fingers and Buttons. Turned out Buttons caught himself a mouse, and didn’t want to share.
I got to the mouse before Buttons managed to puncture it… but not before he managed to put a really good scare into it. For a plague-bearing, disease spreading harbinger of famine and death, it was kind of a cute little bugger:
It got dumped out on the back deck; the cats got themselves a bunch of treats and congratulations for a job well done.
6 Responses to “The Practical Applications of Cats”
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I think you may it backwards. The practical applications of humans is their ability to provide a place to find, capture, and play with mice.
It’s a bit sadistic to suggest, but before putting the mouse back outside, I would have punched some holes in the cap of that plastic bottle you had it in so the mouse could get air, screwed the cap on tight, and put it down on the floor to see how the cats would react to having something they wanted to eat in plain sight but couldn’t reach.
My sister had a pet hamster that she put inside of a Habitrail ball, and her dogs went berserk when it started rolling around – pursuing it when it rolled away from them, fleeing in terror from it when it rolled towards them, and barking like crazy.
The hamster came to a bad end though when it managed to roll the ball down her basement steps.
It was a plastic cup, and I *did* put it down on the floor, and it was utterly *fascinating* to all three cats. A mouse within a little semi-transparent force field that can be batted around?? AWESOMEST CAT TOY EVAR.
I wouldn’t let my cats eat a mouse unless I knew it was healthy. That said given a mouse and a hamster ball I’m sure the cats would have some fun.
Jim
It would be fascinating to watch; I went over to the Habitrail website, and noticed that the ball isn’t made anymore, probably due to one-too-many staircase incident’s like my sister’s.
The cats would be smart enough to know that if the mouse got in there somehow, then a front paw should be able to get in there somehow also.
It would be fun to show how you are putting the mouse in the ball or bottle to them several times, and see if they try to open up the hatch or bottle top after a while.
Cousteau did this with an octopus and a corked glass globe with a lobster in it, and the octopus did eventually pull the cork out to get at the lobster.
BTW, a more recent controlled octopus experiment showed some really fascinating results.
A aquarium was divided into two parts by a transparent wall, with an octopus one either side of the wall… octopus “A” was given a transparent maze to navigate to get at food with many dead ends if it took the wrong path; after several attempts it (no surprise) figured out the right path to take every time.
But what was fascinating was that octopus “B” was able to observe the other octopus doing its trial and error approach from the other side of the tank; and when put into the other side of the tank after the first octopus was removed, was able to navigate the same maze _on the first try_ , having learned the other octopus’s correct path by observing it.