Late last evening I heard my cat Pete come in through the catflap but alarm bells rang when he didn't stick his head round the sitting room door to say hello. I rushed to the corridor of our bungalow in time to see Mikey one of my sons appear from his room and to see Pete sitting gazing at the radiator cover.
Now this almost always means that Pete has brought home a takeaway supper which he inadvertantly dropped and which made a bid for freedom into the depths of the cover. It is usually a mouse, vole or similar small rodent and we have a set protocol for dealing with it.
First all doors need to be closed whilst I fetch my ratchet screwdriver and a plastic food tray and lid. Pete is them removed from the area and the radiator cover unscrewed from the wall (two screws) and lifted off. The offending rodent is then trapped under the plastic tray and the lid slid under it. before being transported outside and released into bushes.
This one was different! Spotting a feathery light brown tail I recognised a hazel dormouse which is very much an endagered species so this one was IMPORTANT. He/she had curled up behind the pipe and it was not possible to use the tray. With MIkey standing by I carefully picked it off the pipe and attempted to place it in the tray only for it to slip throught my fingers, run up my arm, over my shoulder and back down the other side whilst Mikey stabbed at it with the tray. .Plan B saw success with Dormous insidethe box and looking quite angry and affronted.
These beautifly creatures are very rare and you will probably have to use google to view one.. I have always known we had them from the stores of nibbled hazel nuts I find in the wood shed each winter but I have not seen one before in the 17 years we have lived here. If you have to find a definition of the word cute think dormouse.
The last I saw it he was scurrying away through the undergrowth without even a thanks Bob but I am so happy that they are still around and living in our trees and hazel hedges still. AAAAH.
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Great story Bob ! Had a chuckle though as it reminds me of the palaver involved when our Trevor comes through the cat flap and I just sense that he has prey ! My plan A goes into action which involves much shutting of doors and then arming myself with tea towels , not screwdriver!
Oh the joys of. being owned by a cat . We have four , all hunt , luckily only rodents though . The cats bring the caught prey in feeding it to the dogs .🤢
The only time our Romeo brought a mouse in it was unfortunately an undertaker job. But I learned the signs of ‘Look. I caught something’. So yesterday when he started yowling ‘Come see what I got’ I went to look and found a small steak neatly placed on the kitchen mat. I think the plan was for me to cook it as he didn’t know how to tackle it! I think I had better suggest to our neighbour that if you don’t have a cat you should lock the cat flap left by the previous owner……
We had a cat who brought in bacon,sausages, cheese,birds eggs,yes and they were whole!, a goldfish and a golden hamster.....not all in one night I might say.Added to this were bras and socks o quite regularly .His brother always had a look of utter amazment on his cat face when he inspected these items!!When his prefered items were not available he would bring in flowers...only one at a time.
I had a cat who used to hunt socks in the laundry basket. There was much meowing as he proudly offered me a smelly football sock belonging to my son. They probably smelt like old mice! 😂
What a heartwarming story Bob, and with a happy ending thanks to your vigilance, kindness and a screwdriver! Beautiful little creatures dormice and so rare. Thank you xx
Ah how lovely. Have to say though if any rodent no matter how cute decided to frequent my home i would be stood on the sofa screaming and pointing in its direction while my other half dashed around to humanly capture and take it a long long way from my home lol. Fancy doormouse not stopping to raise its hat in thanks for your rescue Bob, no manners these days lol.
Good to know there are still kind people around like yourself who care about our wonderful creation. All creatures are a miracle and are all an important part of it. You saved a life - good on ya! Hope you are blessed for it. Glad Pete was ok. Thanks for sharing that.
We live out in the country and one of our cats found a nest of baby rabbits, presumably orphaned or abandoned and over the day he bought them back one by one totally unharmed, he presented each one very gently then shot off for the next. We have lots of animals so I had all the kit to house and feed them for several months and when they were old enough we released them. He was a very special cat ❤️
They are hugely cute aren't they? I'd never seen one in the live before we moved here. In a very rural area, small town, we're tucked away in a hollow by the river (*see my profile). This summer we had the pleasure of watching the dormouse tucking in on some type of seed from long grass and weeds I'd been unable to cut due to recovering from ablation. Such a treat. We have otters too but only seen here twice in 12 years of living here.
Definitely an ahhhh moment. Usually our Lily (we have Molly too but she only catches flies) brings deceased "gifts" but we have had one live mouse we managed to rescue from the kitchen and rehome about 5 miles away. The funniest was when she was about 10 months old, so still quite small and she managed to drag a live fully grown pigeon into the living room. I was alerted to this by my brave hubby screaming like a girl so rushed downstairs to find him and the pigeon seeing who could flap more!
My old cat Sam, bless her, used to bring home roast potatoes on a Sunday. We found out they were from our old neighbours kitchen but we never let on it was our girl 😁.
We go to a cafe in the wood, as it is called, in Norfolk where they have a reintroduction programme for dormice. Apparently they are in a family related both to mice and, believe it or not, squirrels. They're much smaller than I used to think as, as you say, very cute.
We have always liked cats and have had two as pets for much of our married lives but when the last one finally met his end about ten years ago, we decided that they were bad news for struggling nature. The number of birds at our feeders has since gone up many fold!
I should add that in the last five years we have had to buy two new dishwashers thanks to Pete. It seems fieldmice are partial to the insulation in the wiring looms of these machines and that fault code E13 brings dread to my wallet.
Aaaaaah indeed Bob you are sooooo lucky to have them where you are. A lovely story. My Lily leaves us frequent presents alive or dead in the mornings and I have to be careful where I'm putting my feet first thing!!😍
What a lovely account, we live in the country but have never sees a dormouse as described, however we do have a cob tree so I will look for further evidence, Pete sounds like a great cat
Dormice are supposed to be fairly common round here but we have never seen one. Friends who had a holiday home just outside a neighbouring village were plagued by them. The creatures used to keep them awake at night running about in the attic and every time they arrived on holiday they would put out a trap then take it to the woods the next day to let it out. Sometimes they had to do this several times! Apparently the Romans considered them a delicacy.
I think our friends must have had the edible kind as they were quite large and their running around kept them awake . Tiny ones would not make so much racket.
Funny,...I learned something new today. Wasn't aware there was such a creature (U.S. based). Despite the lack of thank you....the universe is appeased!
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