Hey Everyone.
What you do when your cats catch things and then insist on playing with them for the next 1/2 hour.
My cat Pan likes to bring mice into the house which really wouldn't bother me if it didn't present me with the dilemna of whether or not I should take the poor thing off her. On one hand I hate seeing her torture the mice (usually quite young mice), but then I don't want to take her catch, she's really excited to have it and obviously only brought it in to show it to me. Besides, all of the small animals that I've tried to rescue in the past have just died of shock a few hours later.
Should I put her outside with the mouse or put the mouse out by itself?

Hey Everyone.
What you do when your cats catch things and then insist on playing with them for the next 1/2 hour.
My cat Pan likes to bring mice into the house which really wouldn't bother me if it didn't present me with the dilemna of whether or not I should take the poor thing off her. On one hand I hate seeing her torture the mice (usually quite young mice), but then I don't want to take her catch, she's really excited to have it and obviously only brought it in to show it to me. Besides, all of the small animals that I've tried to rescue in the past have just died of shock a few hours later.
Should I put her outside with the mouse or put the mouse out by itself?

It's been years since I've had a cat do this but I would take the creature away and put it outside and keep the cat in.
Yes the poor little thing will probably die of shock anyway but it'll be a little more peaceful than being tortured for an hour and dying.
FTR, I never scold the cat,just matter-of-factly take away the animal and release it. I go out one door and come back in another to avoid the dart out the door technique or lock the cat in the bathroom until I return.
Mary
Just a bit more: Be VERY careful removing an animal from your pets mouth. If the animal is just playing dead they can jump up and bite you as soon as they're released. If someone's around to help you can release the animal outside with someone holding your cat and you prying open his mouth. Otherwise I would try to release it in a confined area and have a box ready to trap it should it start to scamper. You're dealing with a terrified animal though so it's important to be very careful.

Thanks for the advice - I never have to take it out of her mouth, she lets me pick it up off the floor. Also I never scold her - positive reinforcement works better and is much more fun for me.
The trickey part is getting it out the door without her and then watching her search for it and meow at me for the next hour.
Does anyone think that I could prevent her hunting if I played with her more - or will that just encourage more hunting?

I do everything possible to save the animal. as Mary said, scolding the cat doesn't go over to well, and it's bad for the cat's psyche.

My cat hasn't brought anything in in a while because she knows she doesn't get to "keep" it, and doesn't like the resulting screaming/running around and general chaos that occurs when she does bring in an animal.
Plus I suspect she's just lazy.:p

cats hunt. that's what they do. but i think you can lessen the damage by making it somewhat annoying when they do, and more playtime to wear them out can't hurt.

Thanks for the advice - I never have to take it out of her mouth, she lets me pick it up off the floor. Also I never scold her - positive reinforcement works better and is much more fun for me.
The trickey part is getting it out the door without her and then watching her search for it and meow at me for the next hour.
Does anyone think that I could prevent her hunting if I played with her more - or will that just encourage more hunting?

I don't think you can encourage or discourage it unfortunately. Cats are driven to hunt. She might be bringing home the still alive animal in an effort to teach you how to hunt. Momma cats bring home half dead prey so the babies can learn to hunt by finishing the kill. Pleasant, I know, but it's love in a cats eyes.
You can try getting her a motorized mouse. Two of our cats were terrified of it but we did notice a decrease in presents after we got it. It may have satisfied some of the hunting need. I still find an occasional dead baby animal or mouse in the yard though. My cats tend to stick right in my back yard area where it's wooded so if I see them stalking I go outside and make some noise, call to them, I break their concentration and alert the prey to danger.
Other than that you're pretty much stuck with the occasional dead animal.
Mary

I have this problem every spring/summer. Last year Thor found a baby rabbit's nest. First he brought me one of the babies and I was able to get it away from him. I put it in a box because he looked injured. Luckily, it was just shock because a half hour later he was jumping around trying to get out. But then Thor comes bounding about with a second baby. So I take that one and put it in the box with the first. He looked fine as well. Finally, I locked Thor up for the rest of the day and returned the babies to the woods. Luckily Thor didn't bring home any more, so I like to think they were ok after that. I'm expecting a dead bird/mouse soon since the weather is getting warmer. :(

does putting a bell on their collar help at all?