Back in March, 2021, I decided to hire a couple working cats from a nearby shelter to try to eliminate the occasional rodent invasion problem that exists on the property. I adopted two pairs a few months apart, and haven’t had much success in keeping them around.
However, having some cats around seems to attract other cats. During this time period, we’ve had several groups of regular feline visitors. Typically, it’s been two to four cats at a time. They’ll show up, separately of course, visit regularly for something between a few weeks and a few months, then disappear. Other cats will appear and fill the vacancies in the schedule, then pull their disappearing act. Currently we have three regulars. One has been coming off and on for over a year, but has made himself more at home the last several months. Another has been a regular for roughly half a year. The third is a glutton of a cat that we first saw only a couple months ago.
None of these are members of either adopted pair. The last of those was last seen around the time the newest addition made his first appearance. During this time, we hadn’t seen any mice inside the house. Until last night. I was watching a training video and caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was faster than I’ve ever seen any of the huge cockroaches we see semi-regularly this time of year as it gets colder outside move.
I groaned, knowing what it was. I tapped into my supply of glue traps, setting them alond the edges of the cabinets and walls in the kitchen where they tend to run. An hour or so later, I was rewarded with this.
It was a tiny little fucker, but still a disappointment. Not sure if I should fire the current batch of cats, put them on probation, or just beat the shit out of them until performance improves. For now, I’m calling it Strike One.
Grumpy 