Mice. No thank you. 

My family and I live out in the great suburban town of New Canaan on a little over 2 acres of property which is full of woodland creatures. Squirrels. Foxes. Raccoons. Deer. Mice. MICE! BARF. While I do not mind these fuzzy little friends in their natural habitat I find that I am not as tolerant of co-habitation in my abode. Our first winter in our home back in 2019 our cat Governor had a field day catching mice in the comfort of our playroom. He would hear them, go into predator mode, catch and run around the house with a tail hanging out of his mouth. While I love he gets to practice his feline instincts, I am not a fan of the rodents in the house.

In the past for pest control we have tried a few things. Sealing off gaps in our basement for one – it did not work. And out of sheer desperation after a few mice being caught we opted for pest control. For a few years in a row we would have a company come out to bait the house. While it would work for the season I was unappreciative of the bodies I would recover in the garage during spring clean up. There HAD to be a better way to control the scurrying friends.

Still with no answer we found ourselves this spring (2024) at 2am our cat meowing as if he found a prey. My husband, knowing the yelps, went downstairs to investigate and sure enough Governor had cornered a mouse. Jason spent over an hour in the middle of the night trying to catch the mouse only to end up being bitten and the mouse gone with the wind. The next day, our Au Pair saw a tail sticking out from our heater and was able to apprehend the little ratatouille and escort him to greener pastures, literally.   After a trip to the ER and shots for Jason’s safety from his mouse bite, I reached out to a few rescues for barn cats/mousers. While Jason was not 100% on board, getting mousing cats would allow us to more naturally deter the mice from the house while also providing a home to the felines in need. We welcomed to our home 3 outdoor barn cats.

Barn Cats – but no barn?

While one would think you need a barn to have barn cats, it is not exactly how it works. Yes, they need some sort of shelter from poor weather and a place to keep warm in the winter but otherwise what I am learning from my 3, they spend a lot of time exploring and have cozied themselves up underneath one of our sheds that has about an 8 inch gap. So how does it work? The barn cats came to us and were left contained for a period of 2+ weeks. During that time we provided them with food and water so that they would learn that we would be their constant food source. Bad day hunting? No problem, we got you.

After the time period of waiting it was time to let them loose. Initially I feared they would run away, into the abyss, and never come back, but alas, they come back, every single day. Every morning and evening we leave food and fresh water for the crew and we find that they will start reappearing around 6-7pm. They will eat, roll around and then go off to hunt around the land. For added peace of mind we put some cameras with motion detection on them so that we can see that they, in fact, come back every single day.

Did it work?

It is too soon to tell if it worked as our mouse situation kicks into gear when the weather gets colder but for now the cats are settling in to their turf.

What do I need to have this at my home?

Patience.

A form of shelter. We bought small little outdoor homes for the cats that each have 2 exits. This is for the safety of the cats. If a predator enters from one door, they have another door to escape. We have strategically placed the shelters around the property where we think the mice are on the rise in the winter.

Warmth for winter. We bought waterproof heated pads that are inside the shelters. We keep the pads on when temperatures go lower so the cats have a warm spot to snuggle up in.

Food. We provide the cats 2 meals a day. We are a constant place for food which makes them want to stick around.

While not the most fantastic photo… it is hard to snap a pic of them as they rather stay more incognito than be with humans. This is something that you need to be ok with when it comes to outdoor cats. We got this shot from our nest cam that we set up to ensure that they come back every day and are getting some source of nutrition.