We have a new addition to the household.
Here is Molly:
She comes to us with a purported pedigree as a “mouser.” I’ve complained off and on for the last half year or so about our unwelcome rodent guests. The latest news was that our dishwasher stopped working. The lights came on. Everything electrical worked. But no water. At the end of the cycle it was all hot, bone dry, and everything still dirty.
Yet it wasn’t like a hose had been chewed through–no water came gushing out. So our handyman came over today and we pulled the dishwasher out from under the kitchen counter and found the gawdaful mess behind the dishwasher (dog food, rags, newspaper, and a *kong*–the dogs’ chewtoy–how did it get that back there?). That was all very annoying, and David, our handyman, was focused on the intake hose but I looked down and saw the chewed wires. The litle bastard had cut the wires to signal turning on the water.
The good news is we don’t have to buy a whole new dishwasher–and we got a few projects done around the place this morning that we had meant to do, anyway.
A friend of ours works with an organization that captures, fixes, and tries to find adopting families for feral cats. It bugs me a little that they re-release some of them–but nevermind that. Our friend is a bit stressed lately, as they have too many cats, and she knew we used to have Millicent (bless her little old lady cat heart), until she died in 2006. Come to think of it, we had no rodents when Mill was on site–so maybe bringing Molly into the house will do the trick.
Our friend has called us a few times about Molly, who used to live in an antique store until the owner passed away, and now is looking for a new home. We aren’t sure how well it is going to work–she hasn’t really met our dogs, yet. At a distance, her fur rose, but we have taken it slow, opting to let her see them a few times over a couple days before the big introduction happens.
In the mean time, she has prowled our garage and we hope the rodents are put on warning. I have to go now, off to the hospital for a minor procedure involving Schatzki ring. More later. Until then, here is the look I’m hoping Molly gives any unwelcome rodents:
OmbudsBen 
I think a cat is the perfect solution! Stupid rodents. I suspect they release the feral cats that are deemed too wild to be pets. But at least they’re spayed or neutered, and no longer contributing to the overpopulation problem.
I hope she learns to love the dogs, and they her, and that she can keep the rodents away. Though how she would get behind to dishwasher to catch them is anyone’s guess. But if there aren’t any running around, then they won’t be able to get back there anyway, right?
Good luck. She’s lovely.
And the family grows again! Congrats on the new addition and may she rid you of your unwanted guests. Can’t wait to meet her, and when I do, I’ll try not to act like the rat that I can sometimes be.
Well, I hope that Molly gets along well with the dogs and vice versa. I don’t think our big dogs could resist the urge to chase the cat. They never have resisted the urge to chase anything once we turn our backs. But they’re bad boys, incorrigible. Hopefully yours are not. Best of luck!! She’s awfully cute.
She looks like Mata Hari – beautiful but deadly. Let’s hope her mere presence will deter the rodents and encourage them to move next door. If she looks like that at the dogs, too, they’ll soon get the message: ‘Mess with me and lose your nose, mutt.’
🙂
I suppose I should revere mice. It was because of field mice that I got my first cat at the ripe old age of 30. When field mice invaded the house from a nearby field I was tramatized. I know, can’t help it. Someone suggested a cat, in jest but I didn’t know that at the time. We quickly got Cat Ballou from the shelter. He solved the problem immediately. We saw him catch a few and hold their tails down as he watched them run in place, but that was over quickly. They left the place and went back to the fields. We have never been without a cat since and I can’t imagine life without at least one. Your Molly is beautiful and I hope she endears herself to you as Cat Ballou did to me.
Molly will be just fine. Cats, I’ve found, are remarkably resiliant. She is a beauty, too! Hopefully you’ll get lots of love from her. I know all of my furry companions – 2 cats, 2 dogs – get along really well. Hey, I’m going to be in the area this weekend with my man – want to have coffee? Drop me an email, OB!
Thanks, all. So far introducing Ernie and Edie to Molly has gone … okay. From the dogs’ point of view, the meetings have lacked cordiality. Edie in particular, whom we had worried about, clearly gets the notion that Molly is now part of our pack, and very much wants to meet and be relations.
Ernie, being the older more seasoned fellow he is, gets that he is not to chase her and, beyond that, seems mildly bored by the fuss and doesn’t want any trouble her–she is a cat, after all, and he knows how weird they can be, after having lived with Millicent for several years.
Molly, while not overtly freaked and coming to understand that they so far haven’t tried to eat her and hopefully that trend will continue, still recognize them for what they are: dogs, for crying out loud. She has allowed them to get close a couple times, but then will hiss while her fur goes on end, and so we separate them and continue to go slow with our familial/pack integration.
She is a beauty, and good for you for adopting a black cat. For some gawd forsaken reason, black animals are harder to adopt. Yay! Four-legged additions to any loving family makes me happy.
Oh re: the feral cats: Yes, they are probably too wild to be adopted. While abandoned cats that have gone feral can usually be rehabilitated, as can kittens, adult cats that have been born in the wild rarely can make it as pets. And even with kittens, you gotta get ’em young. So, the most humane thing is to get them neutered or spayed, release them back where you found them and then take care of them the best you can.
Congrats on your new addition.
LB, my problem with feral cats is that they still have the hunting instinct, and we have endangered populations of native songbirds threatened by feral cats. It’s a real problem and highly charged–I’m sympathetic to the cats, but one cat can kill dozens and dozens of birds in its life, and the birds are native, while the cats have been introduced. Once more, people are the problem …
[…] 27, 2009 by OmbudsBen As I mentioned back here, a cat has joined our household–for the first time since our dear 20-year-old Millicent […]