February 1, 2011

Grasshopper Mouse without Rights

Indoor pets don't have rights in our house... indoor pests do.
Animal rights activists should skip this post. :D
I was the first one up this morning, we have all been dragging our feet with this lovely cold. And I'm glad that I missed this. I was going through pictures with Frodo for the previous post when Aragorn non-chalantly walks into the living room and asks if I'd like to see a grasshopper mouse in action. Would I?! I love salt in my wounds! Sure enough this little guy was sitting in our bathtub. *My bathtub* Our bathtub is very deep and apparently these don't jump that high. But the very thought there was a carnivorous mouse in our bathroom....! Good thing I bought a gallon of bleach yesterday. My next question was "Will they eat the children?" Yes, truly, they are carnivorous. For those who are lacking their science skills... they eat meat! A meat-eating mouse. Meat-eating!!! I found this on the internet (with no connection with eating children... or mothers):

Its behavior is rather distinct from other mice. It is a carnivorous rodent, dining on insects (such as grasshoppers), worms, scorpions, snakes, and even other mice. It also stalks its prey in the manner of a cat, sneaking up quietly, and defends its territory by "howling" like a small wolf. The Grasshopper Mouse is known to be immune to various venoms released by its prey. (Scorpions, Snakes, etc.)


Having a 14 year old boy around is handy.... they know how to use a broom for important jobs like mouse extermination.

Can you believe the size of that tail? Reepicheep would be proud.

So then someone brought in one of the kittens. She took one sniff at the mouse and well... you can see for yourself... she put her back to it!! I wonder if she missed the stalking/capturing routine or if they don't eat grasshopper mice. Ugh.



To make this a good-morning we pulled out Panera bagels for breakfast.

2 comments:

  1. Ewww. So glad you cleverly blurred the picture. I hope he's the only one you have to deal with.

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