The snow is melting. That means the rodents are going outside again. As the CEO of Rodent Control at Hervey Cats, my job both gets easier and harder this time of year. With fewer rodents trying to get inside to escape the cold, the ones that do escape it seem to know exactly what they are looking for, and where to find it.
My friend Morris is here to visit. While he may be famous for selling cat food on TV, he and I came up together as kittens. We learned how to hunt together, and nobody gets by us!
Morris and his owners brought snacks for people and cats, and after a brief celebration in the staff room, we started our first patrol.
“Great to see you again Gary,” said Morris. “Life on the road can get tiring. It’s nice to see old friends.”
“Agreed. It is nice to spend time with the people you care about,” said Gary. “Oh! I want to show you something!”
Gary and Morris walked into the back room where they store the cat food. As they entered, they both stopped in their tracks.
“We just had this dropped off by a donor. It’s enough food to feed us all for the rest of our lives. The motherload” said Gary.
“That’s amazing! I’ve only seen that much food before at work. We have A LOT of food there.”
Out the door and from the hall came a loud shriek!
“What was that?” said Morris.
“Sounded like the staff room,” said Gary.
Morris and Gary bolted to the room and saw all the volunteers and staff standing around talking. They seemed nervous. Gary jumped up to the counter and noticed tiny little paw prints on the cake.
“MICE!” he shouted back to Morris.
“Let’s roll!” replied Morris.
Gary jumped back down to the floor and the two looked for a scent to follow. In seconds, Morris had picked up the scent of the rodent. They followed his tracks from the cake, down through the cupboards and into a wall.
“Something seems wrong,” said Gary. “This theft is too brazen. What mouse runs into a packed room and steals cake? Why not wait until they are gone and safely gather crumbs?”
Suddenly another loud shriek came from the storage room. The one the two cats were in earlier. The two cats moved as quickly as possible. They reached the storeroom and found it had been completely emptied. A room once filled to the ceiling with cat food was now totally barren.
“How?” said Morris.
“I… I don’t know.”
The owners looked devastated. All the food they’d planned to give to us, and all our friends, was gone.
“We have to do something!” said Morris.
“Where do we even start?” said Gary.
“How about here?” said Morris, standing near the garage door.
Morris had found a spot with a bunch of fluffy mouse hair. After sniffing the hairs, the two cats determined they belonged not to a single mouse, but many. They had a full-on heist on their hands. After a good sniff, the two started to follow the scent.
Once outside, they started to get confused. The scent went into a treed section, but then it split off in seemingly thousands of different directions.
“The smell is still strongest here,” said Gary, as he pointed to the woods. “Let’s look around.”
The two cats spent some time investigating the wooded area, and a few people even recognized Morris as they walked by. They pet him on the head, and he gave them some headbutts. We didn’t have time to waste so he kept it quick and we went back to work.
After spending a good amount of time sniffing around, we found a path that seemed much stronger than the others. We started to follow it and in the distance, we saw something scurry. A mouse!
The chase was on.
Morris and I went blazing full speed towards it – bounding over branches and through big piles of leaves. Eventually, we caught him.
“Please! Please! I’m just a simple mouse. I have a family. I don’t want any trouble!”
“We just lost enough food to feed over 100 cats for 100 years. We followed the scent and found you,” said Gary.
“I know. I know. I just want to go home.”
“Wait, you know about the food?” said Morris.
“Yes… I know. I’m so sorry. There are many of us,” said the mouse.
“What do you mean?” said Gary.
“We are hungry! The winter was long and we just want to feed our families,” said the mouse.
Gary and Morris looked at each other.
“We both know that feeling, don’t we,” said Morris.
“The food is still ours. It belongs to more than just us, but we know how you feel and maybe we could work out a deal,” said Gary.
“Oh… okay,” said the mouse.
The mouse led the two cats to the riverbank where a massive number of mice were eating mounds and mounds of cat food.
“You see,” said the mouse. “We are all here to eat. We mean no harm!”
At the first sight of the cats, most of the mice ran to hide.
“It’s okay,” said Gary.
“We know how you feel,” said Morris. “But we also represent a large number of cats who rely on this food,” said Morris.
“Aren’t you the cat from 9 Lives?” said one of the mice.
“Look, we want to discuss a deal. This food is enough to feed all of us for a very long time. We can share it.”
The mice slowly came out of their hiding spots and chatted. They seemed happy to make a deal. One of the mice approached the cats.
“Thank you for being so kind. We are sorry we took it all.”
“It’s okay,” said Gary. “Now everyone is happy!”
After the mouse went back to the group, the other mice all started to lift up the unopened bags of cat food.
Gary and Morris went back to the shelter to rub up against the legs of the staff.
“Where were you two?” said Morris’ owner.
“Look!” shouted a voice in the crowd.
One by one, the bags of cat food seemed to walk up the river bank and onto the property.
“The mice are carrying them!” said another voice.
Morris and Gary went back inside the shelter with the humans. They all filed back into the staff room and both cats jumped back up next to the cake the mouse had run on.
“I wonder what the big deal is with these cake things anyway,” said Morris. “I’m going to try some.”
Morris licked some icing and instantly spat it up.
“LOOK! MORRIS IS EATING CAKE!”
In a matter of seconds, everyone had their cameras out and snapped a picture of Morris eating the cake.
“We may have saved the day, but we are still their babies,” said Gary.
“It is what it is,” said Morris.
