When you put "mouse" into Google's search window, the mammal "mouse" doesn't show up until the 3rd return. Computer mice, it seems, are more important to us than the poor little rodents.
Why am I writing about mice? Actually I'm writing about mouse, a mouse, the mouse that my cats caught and played with and eventually hid somewhere in my house. I am less than thrilled at the prospect of coming across mouse remains.
The common house mouse (Mus musculus) is one of the most successful mammalian genera in existence, mostly due to its environmental adaptability. A newborn mouse is called a pup, and is full grown and ready to breed by 50 days of age. The little furries breed year round. A mouse in captivity can live up to four years, but mice in the wild rarely make it to a year due to predation.
Why do I care? I don't, really, except I have mice on my brain because if there was one mouse to be caught in my house, there are other mice lurking somewhere. The mouse in question was found in an open vent- the vent is open because it is also the pathway for our TV cable, which comes into the room from the basement. I'm certain that other mice are happily breeding in our basement somewhere. They're kind of cute, if you can get past their rodent-ness, and I was amazed to watch this mouse play dead when one of the cats dropped it. When she tried to play with it, it took off and hid behind our Tyler water bottles. Have you ever seen a cat try to climb over water bottles? It's pretty funny.
Which brings me to my next point. My cats are lazy and too well-fed. If there are mice in the house, then the 3 felines are falling down on their job. I don't ask for much. I feed them regularly and clean their litter boxes, provide toys and soft beds, and provide hours of ear scritching on demand. The least the cats could do is take care of the rodents in an efficient and silent way, so that I don't have to think about mice. Don't you agree?
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