I’m not recommending you actually try this, but on rare occasions, cats and mice can be friends. Yeah, if I tried it, I’d wind up with half a mouse. But cats and mice are both extremely intelligent and highly adaptable, and can do things you don’t expect. I am assuming the animals in these videos remained friends off-camera.
I once had a mouse who liked to groom my mustache. Think about that. What did she see when she saw me, besides a mustache that needed grooming? But mice do learn to relate to you on a personal level, and I’m blamed if I can fathom how that happens.
It’s astounding that predator and prey can coexist so peacefully, but a well fed cat can be pretty docile.
My cat Henry had no interest in my mice, but he sure would’ve loved to get my baby fence lizards.
Small lizards tend to move abruptly and cats seem to really take note. The motion of lizards is irresistible to a cat.
In these parts, there are Swift’s, a small, nondescript lizard which is quite common. Cats will hunt and eat them and it can become a problem, because the nutritional value of the lizards is inadequate to keep a cat healthy.
Fence lizards are swifts. North America has dozens of different species of swifts. But now it’s time I went to bed.
“now it’s time I went to bed”
Preferably, in a “swift” manner. 🙂
The first lizard I ever kept successfully was a collared swift from Out West, a wonderful, tame lizard pet. Much later on I had the little fence swifts who laid eggs, and I wound up with a couple dozen babies.
I’ve always loved lizards, but the heating system in this building has become so unreliable, I can’t keep them anymore.
If you love lizards, this is the place to be. They are ubiquitous here. Except during the dead of winter, it’s unusual NOT to see a lizard every time I go outside.
Swifts are everywhere, but my favorite are the Horned Lizards, of which there are many. It’s common to see one of these scurrying away from the sound of the lawn mower. I was out front trimming branches and was visited by one less than an inch long. It took some doing, but eventually I caught it and held it in the palm of my hand. What a magnificent miniature Triceratops.
Alas, it’s impossible to make pets of horned lizards. They just stop eating in captivity–maybe because the only food that’s really good for them is lots and lots of live ants.
The one thing we have more of than lizards are ants.
Well, I guess you’re in business, then.
They are welcome to all the ants they can eat.
Another problem we run into when our cats decide to munch lizards for lunch – and it’s quite serious. Liver flukes.
Yep.