The Animals - Jasper's Mice and Other Diversions

Jasper's Mice and Other Diversions

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Jasper has had a mid-life crisis of some kind.  For one thing, early last fall, he stopped eating all of the mice he caught.  Well, he ate some of all of them, but he no longer ate all of all of them.  I think he decided we were taking him for granted, that we didn't know how many mice he caught each night; how much he was helping us out.  And he was right.  We didn't know.

I got some idea a few years back when I had a bout of stomach flu and took up sleeping in the guest room because it was near the bathroom.  I was so sick I didn't know if I was coming or going, so to speak.   Jasper was keeping an eye on me, though.  When I had been sleeping fitfully for a few hours and got up to run to the bathroom once again... I looked down on the rug next to the bed for my slippers and there, lined up like little dead soldiers, were three fat little mice ready for me to have to settle my tummy.  I thanked him weakly and took them and flushed them.  I always hoped he didn't see me.  But if he could come up with three mice in the space of as many hours for me, how many must he be wolfing down on his own every month?
About the same time as his taste in mice changed, he started yowling to go outside.  YOWLING!  And this from a cat who for the past five years (all of his life with us) was afraid to look outside if the door was opened.  So we let him out.  At first he would crawl on his belly like a snake and circumnavigate the house close to the foundation.  He would go out the back door and then want to come right back in the front door.  This went on for a few days, maybe a week.  And then he got braver.  He started venturing further from the house.  He began exploring - everywhere.  He made friends with the barn cats (all guys).   He started hanging out with them and eating, just a little, of their food when we fed them at night.  Just to show he was one of the guys, I guess. 
Now he lives in both worlds.  He didn't go  out in the extreme cold, but most days he patrols outside and inside.  It was very interesting watching him confront his fears and overcome them, one  by one.  I have new respect for him.  And he hasn't left a mouse for me to clean up for months.  He must have gotten his appetite back!



(For now my blogger won't let me post his picture ... maybe later)