"Nailed to the floor and gnawed on by tigers"

"Why don't you have a blog entry where you are nailed to the floor and gnawed on by tigers," comments reader Leo re our post of murder at dawn this morning:

I like cats but I also like mice. I think it is shameful to take advantage of the misfortunes of other creatures for your own personal gain or ego gratification.

It would be great to have pictures, but the audio of your agonized screams would get you another InstaLanche. That's the type of world you live in and are helping to create with your blog.

If you wouldn't like it, why are you so ready to glorify the torture of other creatures?

These are huge questions.  We have rescued every mouse and squirrel and chipmunk and bird we could ever pop out of Baby's and Tiny's mouths through the years, blogged early and often here, but it's always touch and go. Cats have their imperatives, and we have ours. That precious little mouse -- may its soul rest in peace -- so tiny and defenseless in the face of the Evil Paw, had already gone to meet its maker by the time we realized what was happening this morning.  Only a couple of days back we had popped a mouse -- it might have been the same one or one of its mates -- out of Baby's mouth in a pre-dawn diningroom encounter.  The little fellow ran off into the other room, and we headed out to the kitchen for Friskies. But sooner or later, nature has its way.

The bottom line is that we blog what we know, and we always look to the animals for cues to our own behavioral imperatives. Like the Everly Brothers' love, nature red in tooth and claw hurts, it scars, it burns and mars. It ties in with Pope John Paul II's disagreement with GW. The Pope said give peace a chance, but GW knew better. Human nature, like feline nature, is predatory. That always has to be the starting point.

Comments

[Stephen Lalley]

Why do you have so darn many mice in your house? :)

[Sissy Willis]

Good question, Stephen Lalley. Probably because I keep popping them out of the cats' mouths?

[andophiroxia]

Your efforts have been valiant and honorable. Unfortunately, nature does prevail at times. Oh well.

[willow]

Some people. Nature does prevail, which is the point, and if Baby had gotten that mouse because someone had nailed it to the floor, as "Leo" (funny name in this situation, actually) wished upon you in an unmistakable spirit of retaliation, it would have been very, very sick indeed.

Nice try there, Leo. But the moral equivalence card doesn't play well to this crowd.

[goomp]

I can testify first hand that I never knew people or knew of people who were more caring about all creatures great and small than Sissy and her mother. Showing the true face of nature after the death has occurred is art not sacrilidge.

[Jigga]

Nice. The fact that cats kill mice means that George W. Bush is totally awesome! Cuz, you know, Saddam Hussein, was, like, this cat, and Americans, or whoever he was threatening, were like mice. But then G.W. Bush totally transmogrified us all into big awesome cats, and Saddam into a mouse. But, Saddam was still like, a really evil mouse, probably carrying the plague or something and not at all like Stuart Little, so he still had to go.

[Walter E. Wallis]

A rat is a cat is a woman? Ain't modrin edication wonnerful?

[TigerHawk]

They're mice. They exist in the world to be food for Tigers, Hawks, and even cats. Back when my wife and I were first dating, we travelled back to law school via a week in our rustic Adirondack camp. Her cat ("The Kitty") are exactly one meal that week. Otherwise, her belly was too distended with rodentia. Except for the chipmunks, who never did a mean thing to anybody, I thought it was hilarious.

[andophiroxia]

I agree with you, Tigerhawk. From what I learned from education is that the rodentia are about near at the bottom of the food chain. So, it is natural that they are prey to carnivores, especially cats. That's reality.

[Sebastian Löfgren]

I think your "cat" ought to get cought by a giant mouse, and get ripped to its blood and guts.

It's sick to just kill for pleasure, im very sure that that "cat" did NOT eat the mouse, AFTER the "cat" killed the mouse.