Next time your cat brings you in a present ...

[Moira]

You'll be able to find a use for it! Read how to turn your dead mouse into a useful piece of computer hardware

http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/04/28/...-a-dead-mouse/

[nihil]

Hi Moira,

I actually have one of those USB hardware mice

Unfortunately, only my female cat catches mice from time to time, brings them in unharmed and releases them................then watches with great interest (and probably amusement) as I have to catch it and put it back out again

[kryptonic]

This is probably a stupid question but is that a real mouse?

[Drakain Zeil]

yes

I saw on discovery some guy who cut up cockroaches and other bugs, filled them with watch gears, wound them up and sealed them up. evidently you can buy these frankenstein bugs from his site. I had no desire to look into it.

[phishphreek]

Call me new fashioned... but I think I would have more fun with an annoy-a-tron.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8c52/

[Aardpsymon]

awesome. That is very similar to an idea someone once told me.

They hid a cheap portable CD player and travel speakers in the tank of the toilet. Taped above the water line of course. Then they set it playing on a really low volume so that it could only just be heard. The musical toilet. People thought they were going mad for weeks.

But on the original topic....

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/...5/badger.shtml

How to install linux on a dead badger.

[nihil]

Hmmm,

I like the annoy-a-tron....................reminds me of the time I lent my radio controlled farting machine to the guys in General Infrastructure Support

[Moira]

Yes, the annoy-a-tron sounds amusing and installing linux on a dead badger gives a new meaning to the word weird ..... what sort of person installs linux on a dead badger - or makes a computer mouse out of a real-live-dead mouse for goodness sake??

Yeah my cat has a habit of bringing mice in alive, then dumping them and joining in the catch, so there's me and the cat both trying to catch this poor unfortunate (and sometimes injured) mouse. Fortunately she doesn't catch many, but I really don't like cats when they do this.

[nihil]

Hi Moira,

Zoe is rather more malicious, although she has never injured one to my knowledge (judging by the rate at which they scurry off when released). She just lets them go and watches the proceedings with apparent interest.

Her brother doesn't pay any attention, and has never caught a mouse. It would seem as if, because he didn't catch it, he doesn't want to know

I have wondered if it might be part of Zoe's maternal instincts, and she is trying to teach her "kittens" to hunt?

I am quite good at it actually..............I have an old towel handy and as soon as I hear the tell-tale noises I grab it and drop it over her. She backs out from under the towel and I can carefully gather the mouse and put it out.

[Moira]

I use a wellington boot I can often corner the mouse into going inside, then I just pick up the boot and deposit the mouse outside (while making sure I keep the cat well inside for long enough to allow the mouse to escape).