Cats. Don't 'cha love 'em?

I do love my cats. I really do. My cats used to be indoor cats until I put in a doggy door so the dogs can go out to the backyard when I'm not home. I'd like my cats to be indoor cats again. They're much safer that way, and so are the birds and other critters. But I'd have to take the doggy door out and that's not going to happen.

The house began to smell funny a couple of days ago. I searched and searched. Finally found the culprit - a dead mouse. There have been a large number of mice in the house lately, probably because it's been raining so much that the backyard is soaked. (Same for those damned big cockroaches, that would normally stay outside.) I have occasionally found the cats playing with a very live mouse. Once with an almost dead mouse. Then there are the dead mice I find once the cats lose interest. I take the live ones outside. I left the almost dead mouse with Lucy until it wasn't almost dead anymore, then threw it away. Of course, I throw the dead ones out right away, if I find them right away. Which I don't always, and the nose knows when I don't!

So I tracked down the dead mouse and took it outside to the trash can. Still, after a few hours, the house still smelled funny (bad). I went to where it seemed to be the worst and looked around. I pulled the couch out and searched with a flashlight and, voila, there I found the back half of a lizard. (I don't have carpet, thank goodness, so I don't have to worry about the smell sinking into the fabric.) Out the half-lizard goes to the trash can. Great! No more smell.

But wait, there's still a bit of an odor in the room where the lizard was found.

I get the flashlight and search under the couch this time. And what do I find? Yet another dead mouse. One more trip to the trash can.

I think I've got them all now. No more smell of death in the house. I am assuming that the front half of the lizard was not so tasty, otherwise the back half would have been gone, too.

What great mousers I have! I just wish they'd take the damned corpses outside when they're done.