We’ve always called my cat Simon "The Great Hunter Kitty". Whenever we get crickets or flies in the house, he hunts them down, stalks them, and eats them. It makes for a nice, cricket and fly-free house.

On Sunday, my uncle was filled with despair, because he has a terrible mouse problem in his house. He said he had already caught 6, and there were more everywhere. He told us he was using glue traps. Ack, I think those are inhumane. Not that there is a terribly humane way to get rid of your mouse problem, but I personally find glue traps to be the worst.

He just kept being sad and said he didn’t want to go home, so I offered to bring Simon over to see if he maybe could thin the mouse population. My uncle agreed, so I went home and put a collar on Simon, put him in the cat carrier, and one very meowy ride later, we showed up at his house.

Simon was amazing. We’ve never had mice, so I wasn’t sure whether he would know what to do with a mouse if he caught one. But my uncle and I flushed three mice out of the pantry, and Simon caught and killed all three of them. I was scared he would play with them instead of killing them, but he caught them and killed them immediately. Whew. More humane than glue traps, and my cat had a fun time, to boot. AND now I know if I ever get mice, I’m safe. I’m afraid of mice (stupid, I know) so if we ever had mice in the house, I’d freak out. At least I know Simon would take care of them.

The down side to this is, I know we can never have small animals now. We had a guinea pig when the cats were kittens, and I think they led to her demise to begin with. The guinea pig was very nervous- the cats would pop up at their cage to make her run around in the cage. Once we came home to find her dead in her cage. I think they gave her a heart attack.  So sad.

It does stem the tide of the kids asking for a hamster, rat, or gerbil though. Awesome.

Simon’s been stalking around the house ever since we came back from my uncle’s like he’s the bee’s knees. I think he knows he earned his "Great Hunter Kitty" title!