Yes, our dog Zoe caught a live mouse last week and Jim snapped the leash and she relinquished it. Normally our family adopts cats and dogs that have no hunting instinct, except for cat Hobbes (RIP) and our Zoe. The mouse scurried away but probably not without injury.
Many years ago I went to visit my sister in CA and she wondered why all these cats were gathered around her small home. Mija, her cat, was in heat, I explained. Shortly thereafter my brother flew across country with a five week-old kitten in his pocket. Surprise! My sister had offered me a kitten and I declined, I’d just moved to NYC to a new job. She didn’t send me the one she offered in the first place, but a runt who fell off the 7′ shelf in the garage and Mija stopped feeding him at two weeks of age so my sister put him on solids.
I was an inveterate “dog person” at the time and knew nothing about cats. I knew nothing about food, litter or milk replacement formula. I bought one book that said to only give cats frozen raw kidneys, frozen four days to eliminate bacteria. I threw that away. Then I got a book that told me to make a mouse.
One-sixth of an animal is internal organs so we need some liver and kidney and heart et al. The fur provides fiber. So I bought a chicken and roasted it and saved the breasts for me and the rest for Nathan (Nathan’s hot dogs, or Kevin Kline’s character in Sophie’s Choice). I added kelp, brewers’ yeast and a ton of things to make a week’s worth of food for him in ice cube trays. He wouldn’t eat it.
Over the years I still tried to give him quality food, and ended up with Innova, which has no meat by-products or corn. Do you know what he liked? Fancy Feast. So on his birthday and Christmas I got him a can of Fancy Feast as an illicit treat. He was with me for 13 years and I never got the last word in a discussion. He was part Burmese, a gorgeous cat with a beautiful coat.
He got out of the house one day and went to visit a neighbor, came back and got a cough that became pneumonia. Coupled with congestive heart failure I had to do the right thing so held him for a while even after he was sedated and euthanized.
Sometimes a cat doesn’t appreciate the whole mouse as a human sees it. Luckily our dog, after multiple tries at food she would eat, relishes her raw lamb with carrots and blueberries and squash. It’s frozen solid and she’s a happy camper! Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 