The Vent and Rant Thread

[Rumpelteazer]

I have no food in my room and I've thoroughly cleaned them, but after weeks of no mice, not even in between the ceiling, there was one earlier in the week, and again tonight.

I now suspect they come from the museum next door, which closed a year ago. It's a big building and only two people live in it until renovations start (to prevent squatters). Before the museum took over the building it was an office building and before the renovations started to convert it to a museum there were anti-squatters. Back then they didn't take out the trash and let it pile up in the hallway. Resulting in a huge number of mice invading not only that building but all buildings near it. But back then we had three cats, who took care of the mice. Occasionally catching one, but their presence deterred mice. The warm and dry weather of the past months might also have had an effect.

Now we have no cats. And even if these anti-squatters are clean, a big, mostly empty building might attract mice.

The mice or this one mouse, isn't deterred by my measures. It doesn't go into the no-kill traps we have. We don't want to use kill traps and I'd rather not use poison (they might die and go smelly in an inaccessible place). So only one solution remains: getting a cat.

My father wouldn't mind one, though he wants to get a young cat. But my mother is against it. She would like one but doesn't want the responsibility anymore. I can understand that, but since nothing is working so far it's the only solution. Also there have been reports of a lot of pregnant cats and kittens being dumped at animal shelters. I wouldn't mind taking on the daily responsibility of feeding and cleaning the litter box and sharing the costs of food and vet.

[CRussel]

And you'll get a lot more out of the cat (or cats) than you ever put in to them. I strongly suggest getting a pair of kittens if you're getting kittens. It gives them someone to play with and they grow up less neurotic, IME.

Getting kittens is not an immediate solution, obviously, as opposed to befriending a more adult cat who is a good mouser. But I personally prefer the kitten solution while maintaining and adding traps until they reach an age where they can be of more use. That way you'll end up with well adjusted cats that are usually more friendly and loving.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by CRussel

And you'll get a lot more out of the cat (or cats) than you ever put in to them. I strongly suggest getting a pair of kittens if you're getting kittens. It gives them someone to play with and they grow up less neurotic, IME.

Getting kittens is not an immediate solution, obviously, as opposed to befriending a more adult cat who is a good mouser. But I personally prefer the kitten solution while maintaining and adding traps until they reach an age where they can be of more use. That way you'll end up with well adjusted cats that are usually more friendly and loving.

True...but in most shelters, you can also typically find pairs and sibs that have been given up, for one reason or another, usually not their fault.

It's hard...kittens are darling and adorable and yes, they make wonderful companions, as you develop a deep and abiding love for them, but with SO many cats abandoned every year...I try to always adopt an adult, or an adult+a kitten, to try to do my small bit for helping the ridiculous cavalier behavior of people around cats. Don't get me started....

Just one idea, if you really need mousers sooner rather than later. AND, here's a thing--not all cats mouse. They have to be taught by their mother, so...you could get either adults or kittens, and not score mousers. Of course, usually, just the scent of cats helps keep the mice away.


Hitch

[Hitch]

As more kitty encouragement (not that I'm that kind of cat person, that will show cat piccies, at the drop of a hat...)

My Maine Coons--the brown tabby is Zep (Zeppelin, for his size and shape, not the band); the silver tabby is Storm. That's Zep holding down the right-hand side of my rather large, old oak desk, in the office. She was the adult that we adopted, when we acquired the brown menace. She's a wonderful, wonderful cat. I mean, they both are, but she's smart as a whip, and if we lived someplace where she could go outside, she'd be a killer mouser. (To encourage those of you considering adult adoptions!!).

Natch, I have kitten pictures, to really lure you into kitty ownership...

Ranty part:

Spoiler:

So, let's see, to keep up the Ranty part of this thread, people are total a$$holes for abandoning cats, under the deluded idea that somehow, because cats can hunt, that they'll "be fine" if abandoned. People SUCK.

:-D

[Rumpelteazer]

My father agrees with the plan to get a cat. We told my mother about our decision. She said that she doesn't want a cat, but in a way that says she would love to get a cat.

However, it isn't the right time of the year. We'll have to wait until it cools down again. With the warm weather we not only have to shop door open but also to the at the top of the stairs to our home. I don't think that is a good idea with a new cat, it's better to let it used to upstairs before letting him or her downstairs in the store.

We've always had inside cats. Although Nikita occasionally visited the café next door and once chased her arch nemesis Momo across the street, down the stairs to the wharf and right into the water.

I've already been looking at things we need to get; we've given away or thrown away all the cat things we had.

And of course we're going to adopt from the shelter. Our first three cats came from shelters. Nikita was raised by neighbour after her mother died when she was a couple of days old (or rather she was raised by Jack Russell dogs) and Lexie we found in the cellar and since she wasn't registered as a lost cat she stayed with us.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Ranty part:

Spoiler:

So, let's see, to keep up the Ranty part of this thread, people are total a$$holes for abandoning cats, under the deluded idea that somehow, because cats can hunt, that they'll "be fine" if abandoned. People SUCK.

:-D

What we've seen in our neighbourhood is that café's and restaurants get a cat to deal with the mice and then don't feed them, because they think that will encourage a cat to hunt mice. Well, our cats were all well fed and they all were mousers. Snoepie ate them and only left the tail, Nikita lost interest the moment they stopped moving and the others brought them as gifts (preferably during the night, right next to the bed, so you would step on the corpse in the morning). As soon as another neighbour (who owns a café of her own) notices this she makes sure there is a bowl of cat food in her café and in the end the cat always decides living with her is much a much better deal.

Though now I think about it, there aren't many cats in the neighbourhood at the moment.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Every time I log onto the Google play store on my PC it offers me the Chrome browser. I actually have the Chrome browser on my computer, it just wasn't the browser I was using at the moment. I don't need to download it again!

I get that too, and ignore it. I have a current version of Chrome installed, but my production browser has been Firefox for a long time.

The question is how the Play Store knows you have Chrome if it ins't what you're using. It would require Chrome to place a cookie the Play Store could read to say Chrome existed on your machine. Given the current concerns about privacy, and the notions a lot of folks seem to have about cookies being bad, and install stuff to block or remove them, I don't see that occurring.

(Come to think ot it, if you run Firefox, there is probably a custom CSS UserStyle that can prevent that query from displaying.)
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Just one idea, if you really need mousers sooner rather than later. AND, here's a thing--not all cats mouse. They have to be taught by their mother, so...you could get either adults or kittens, and not score mousers. Of course, usually, just the scent of cats helps keep the mice away.

Yep. Years back, I had Bugsy the Part-time Cat. Bugsy actually belonged to another tenant in my building, but made the rounds, accepted attention and handouts, and hunted rodents. I live in an old building. Mice come with the territory.

Our late neighbor across the hall had a delicate neutered Siamese male named Maxie. Maxie was extravagantly stupid, and had been observed retreating in confusion from a mouse. Bugsy was deeply disgusted by this.

Bugsy later became Full-time cat, when he adopted my SO and I and decided we were his preferred people. (Given his nominal owner, that was a rational decision on his part.) He'd still make the rounds and catch mice, then bring them to us to display his prowess. He did not normally eat them. The only times I recall seeing him eat one was when it was still alive when he caught it to bring to us and it got away from him. Then he ate it, in an apparent case of "You're not getting away from me this time, you little @#$%&! I'm going to eat you!"
______
Dennis

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Our late neighbor across the hall had a delicate neutered Siamese male named Maxie. Maxie was extravagantly stupid, and had been observed retreating in confusion from a mouse. Bugsy was deeply disgusted by this.

______
Dennis

LOL. As I said all our cats were mousers. Although I think for Nikita it was more of a fun play-thing until it stopped moving. Now frogs, those scarred her. I once witnessed Nikita and Snoepie under the hedge on our vacation address (which was really our grandparent's). There was a frog and Snoepie kept batting the frog in Nikita's direction who would recoil when it jumped in her face.

So, now the decision's made my mother wants to get a cat ASAP. So after I've done my house sitting we're going to visit the shelter. So in just over three weeks we get a new addition to the family!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

LOL. As I said all our cats were mousers. Although I think for Nikita it was more of a fun play-thing until it stopped moving. Now frogs, those scarred her. I once witnessed Nikita and Snoepie under the hedge on our vacation address (which was really our grandparent's). There was a frog and Snoepie kept batting the frog in Nikita's direction who would recoil when it jumped in her face.

So, now the decision's made my mother wants to get a cat ASAP. So after I've done my house sitting we're going to visit the shelter. So in just over three weeks we get a new addition to the family!

Cngrats, that's wonderful! I know that you guys will be a fabulous home for a needy kitty. :-)

Hitch

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Cngrats, that's wonderful! I know that you guys will be a fabulous home for a needy kitty. :-)

Hitch

What she said.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Cngrats, that's wonderful! I know that you guys will be a fabulous home for a needy kitty. :-)

Hitch

Originally Posted by CRussel

What she said.

Thank you.

There's a big pet store not too far away from where I'm going to house sit. If it cools down at some point (next week temperature might rise to 35C ) I'll go visit it and stock up on some things.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Hitch

...
here's a thing--not all cats mouse. They have to be taught by their mother,
...
Hitch

We have five cats, and not one of them will chase a cockroach, much less a mouse.

The two younger ones were adopted as a 4 week old pair from the same litter. They'll be three next Christmas and they remain best buddies.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by wodin

We have five cats, and not one of them will chase a cockroach, much less a mouse.

The two younger ones were adopted as a 4 week old pair from the same litter. They'll be three next Christmas and they remain best buddies.

Funny you mentioned this. I once lived in an apartment building that was not too far from a ravine. We had those big black waterbugs/cockroaches ALL the time. I probably saw one at least 2-3 times per week.

Then I got a cat. Max would watch crawling bugs go past; he didn't chase them unless they flew that I ever saw. (He did catch me two mousies, although he mostly just liked to chase them).

But after I got that cat, I stopped seeing waterbugs. I always wondered if he chased them when I wasn't home - so they stayed away. Like he was just too cool to be seen chasing cockroaches....

[HLS]

I decided to sel my brand new ipd and get a pro from verizon. well my activation got [messed] up. took hours of calls and a trip to best buy to find out activation was set to 07/27. I put in a plan change the same day and it messed up the tablet activation. No one could see the tablet on my account. i do not know why it had to go threw hours of calls and many reps to find this tidbit out Also verizon [messed] up my account trying to change that. They think they may have deleted my payment plan so maybe im getting a free ipad pro? best buy was going to try to do a return exchange but it was a hassle so i decided to wait till 07/27 and if the tablet was still not working to come back to the store but the verizon people felt confident the tablet will activate 07/27