Note to the cats:

[MonkeyFunk]

I have you to keep the mice OUTSIDE! Do NOT bring them inside to me!

[wildhorses]

1. but, they have a little gift for you

they love you so much:loveya:

[MonkeyFunk]

2. Then why do they seem so put out

when I take the gift and um... dispose of it.

[Orsino]

6. Supposedly, you should make a big deal of it...

...and praise them. I think they're looking for the equivalent of mama cat's validation of their hunting prowess.

I did this with a kitten once, and she never brought me "treats" again.

[Zuiderelle]

7. I always praise our cat when he brings us a mouse.

Of course, he gets them from inside the house, so he deserves the praise. He looks so confused when we pick it up to put it outside. He searches frantically in the same spot he last saw it for hours, poor thing.

[bridgit]

3. they are just showing you what mighty hunters they are, it's an homage to you...

of sorts :)

[Throwing Stones]

12. or they're showing you what they're capable of

a show of force, maybe?

"you will bring more tuna, or this could happen to you!"

[ironflange]

4. We had the same mouse. . .

brought in by two different cats a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, I wasn't home to watch the fun.

[uppityperson]

5. You see them at the door, rodent in mouth, and yell NO!!! and they drop it

it runs inside.

I woke up once to a cat walking on my clothes hangers. Finally she caught the chipmunk that she brought in the night before and let loose there. It spent the night in my bathrobe pocket. Chipmunks are cute rodents. They pee and poop like rodents. And they try to bite you when you remove them from the cat's mouth. Poor beastie.

[montanto]

9. lol, my cat put a possum

in my closet (live)! I had to pick it up with long barbeque tongs. It wasn't happy.
An unhappy possum is an unpleasant thing I can tell you.

[uppityperson]

11. A possum beats a chipmunk by a long ways.

Could be one of odder subject lines I've written on DU.

[Zuiderelle]

8. Buy a hawk.

[nickgutierrez]

10. It's a warning.

"See? See what I did to this mouse? When the animal revolution comes, this will be YOU!"