Chloe's first mouse!

**Warning - if you are sensitive to seeing small, dead, furry creatures, or get squeamish at the sight of a little blood, you may want to proceed with caution**

Chloe - our resident nut-job cat - caught her first mouse this morning. Or at least the first mouse that we KNOW she's caught. Since she's strictly an indoor cat (due to numerous health issues) I never figured she'd catch a mouse at all. It's all about opportunity and she never had the opportunity.

The odds of her catching a mouse dramatically increased when we moved up here last year. With rural living comes a whole host of changes in lifestyle. One of those changes is that you get mice.... lots of mice... and you will get them in your house. I don't care how thorough you think you are, you're going to get them. As I said earlier today, we KNOW we have mice living in the house - they leave us little "calling cards" under the sink, in cupboards etc.

For a solid 2 hours this morning, Chloe was fixated, literally obsessing, over the space under and around our dressers. If you have a cat, or cats, you know that they do this - and often there's nothing there. At first I thought that was the case this time.

And then I HEARD it. Initially I thought I was just imagining it... or that I was hearing noises from other parts of the house and "placing" them incorrectly under the dresser. It happens. But then the noises became more insistent. Louder. And the cat became more interested in the bottom of the dresser. She began running back & forth in time to the scratching noises.

In the end, it was SO quick that I was unable to get any photos until after it was dead. By the time I got the camera out again, she was trying to get it to run away so she could chase it!!

 She was SO fast, and so successful dispatching the mouse that there wasn't even the tell-tale squeak to let me know she'd gotten it. I think she was actually a bit disappointed that it was dead so quickly. So good job Chloe, congratulations on your first mouse. Keep up the good work, you've got a right to look smug now!