Still on strike, Romietta the Cat refuses management's request to catch mice in the house, insists on sleeping in the house and hunting only in the great outdoors.
About two weeks ago I explained that I had been playing the role of Ramar of the Jungle, catching house mice in a Havahart trap, hunting them at night, trapping them, because Romietta the Cat refused to help out. Some of you offered good advice. Others played the world's smallest violin. Fine.This is a very brief progress report. If you think being the Pied Piper of Hamelin was an easy, part time, low stress gig, you've got another think coming.
I'm sorry to report that this is not a pretty picture. I have caught more than a dozen mice and released them far from the house. I can catch one or two every night, if I want to. Organic crunchy peanut butter seems to be irresistible to them. There are two basic mousely appearances: fat and gray or disheveled and brown. Yes, I may have caught the same two mice more than six times, but I don't think so. No, I am not spraying them with paint or nail polish to keep track of them. Or imbedding them with special electronic codes. No. I am just hunting them until I am worn out. Or they are. This could be a long, thankless process. I could get warn out. There are already evenings when I am unwilling to set the trap.
Romietta is still on strike. She refuses on feline principle to hunt in the house, even when she is locked in, even when her food ration is severely decreased, even when I show her delectable mice that are in the trap. Even when I call to her in the yard before I release nice, fat, slow witted mice while she watches. She insists on hunting only outside the house. Fortunately, because mice that want to return to the house have to cross the yard, she is willing to catch them out there. Whether she then kills and eats them, or brings them in the house to release them so that we can continue to play the catch and release game remains an issue.
There is one small, good thing. When Winter comes, Romietta likes to stay in the house. Maybe she will hunt then. Maybe I will consider starving her into hunting. If not, I will re-negotiate her CBA. I will consider retroactively returning her to the barn where she was found as a kitten.
No not really. I wouldn't do that. I do love her. It's just that, well, sometimes the course of love isn't smooth. Sometimes the course of love brings unspeakable thoughts of felinicide.