Are the days of the mouser cat coming to an end?! Originally, the whole purpose of the domestic cat was to see-off rodents, to frighten rodents into staying away. Today, at number 10 Downing Street, the offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom there lives a cat, Larry, whose purpose is to prevent rats from occupying the area.
But as the domestic cat becomes ever more domesticated, softer, less of a predator and more of a fluffy companion, the durable rat is becoming an even better survivor and judging by a story that is doing the rounds in the online press, becoming bigger and stronger, leading to a role reversal which is rather troubling.
I am referring to the so-called “giant mutant rat” that terrified a cat and which chased an entire family in their own home after eating its way through a brick wall!
There may be a little bit of media exaggeration going on here but judging by the picture this is certainly a very large rat. It is, actually, about the size of cat. So if this family’s cat is small (and I’ve no idea whether he or she is or not) then it is conceivable that the rat was bigger than the cat and certainly more aggressive and confident by the sound of it.
People in the UK and the USA needn’t be too fearful at the moment because this mutant rat lived in Sweden. He was killed by an industrial-sized trap which appears to have broken his neck. However, this rat did run around for awhile after being crushed by this industrial device. The family were fearful that, having been killed, the rat would come back to life as a zombie to haunt them for the rest of their days! This rat was hard to kill.
The story does have a slightly serious side to it for cat lovers. It is probably fair to argue that the domestic cat is no longer a mouser. You cannot rely on your cat to prevent rodents from getting into and living in your home. Some individual cats will be effective but my impression is that a lot will be ineffective and show no interest in attacking a mouse or rat, even an ordinary sized one.
This gradual decline in the predatory skills of a domestic cat (if this is a fair assessment) may be the beginning of a change in the order of things as the rat becomes immune to poison and other methods of killing it while growing ever bigger.
I’m just speculating and having a bit of fun but it makes sense that the domestic cat should gradually lose its predatory skills over hundreds of years because it no longer needs to use them. If you don’t use it, you lose it, as the saying goes.
Michael I agree with use it or lose it however in this instance I have to disagree. We had a mouse in the kitchen then all hell broke lose when the mouse for some reason known only to himself decided to head for the front door! First we knew of it when there was a scuffle concerning Alfie in the hallway and Mouse decided to head for the living room. I don’t like cats to torture small animals yet at the same time mouse wasn’t welcome.
Anyway 2 adults and 3 cats were in hot pursuit! he was one quick little mouse! Well I say little he was quite big actually!
I went to grab him a number of times and he darted this way and that until he finally hid in the cat toys most of which are yep you guessed it! Mice!!
M C Ozzie finally caught him and yet Ozzie being a house cat had never caught one before but knew exactly what to do! He then wouldn’t let it go so he ran around growling 🙂
yea my heart would panic like i have had other times. We had a rat climb up though the electrics of the oven. As we got 5 cats and none of them could catch the rat. Then found out it had been making a home under the elements. Had to get an electrician to fix oven and got the rat. The big mommy rat i find hard to catch. We found using a cat cage a great way of catching them as they so afraid when theres cats around it will go in there, then its like get that rat and let it run free. Then the cats run after them.
That is a BIG rat! Thank goodness it’s not in our country lol my screams would be heard all over England if Jozef brought one home that size lol and Barbaras would be heard worldwide!
I don’t think Jo would be afraid of tackling it, he brought a rabbit home almost as big as himself, but Walt wouldn’t be very sure, he prefers small shrew types of mice.
I do not believe that you would scream because you saw a rat that size! 😉 I think you would grab hold of something and beaten it to death! You are a very practical person and I think when push comes to shove your practicality would takeover. Maybe you would send in Jo to deal with it?
Rats make me quake in my boots Michael, I think it’s their long thick tails as I’m scared of worms and snakes, wouldn’t hurt them but just don’t like them as friends lol
I suppose I’d kill a rat if it was getting the better of a cat but I think our Jo would do a better job than me with his fatal nape bite.
OMG thats a big rat. Thank goodness they caught it. Cant stand rats. My jasmin caught a baby rat the other day hes not even even 3 months old!
Jasmin is old-fashioned ratcatcher!
https://pictures-of-cats.org/cats-natural-born-rat-killers.html