How else will you learn how to catch and dispatch them?

Stepping on dead mouse guts first thing in the morning is no fun either when the cat leaves half a dead mouse outside your bedroom door. Source: personal experience.

Or try getting a "gift delivery" of a live snake when you're ophidiophobic.

Mouse: delivered alive. Vole: not alive.

It's worse when it's a rabbit. Dead or alive.

This is exactly why we have humane mousetraps to hand now.

I was cat sitting for my sister a few weeks ago when she was on holiday. The night before she came home her cat brought in a tiny field mouse and just sat playing with it, she then went back outside while I tried to get the mouse out. About 20 minutes later i saw her walk past me with something hanging out if her mouth, I shouted her name and she turned to look at me with another tiny mouse hanging out her mouth. I screamed no and told her to get it out, after shouting a few times she sighed and walked outside with it, she placed it on the grass and spent the next couple of hrs chasing it around the garden. I could barely sleep that night because i knew there was still a mouse running around. My sister came home the next day and found the first mouse under her fridge 2 days later. My sister found the whole thing hilarious while I was freaking out .

I have a dog that does this with birds and snakes. She actually brought one of each in her mouth together once, both stunned. So that was fun.

...even worse if it's your bedroom!

We get skinks. Kitty sits there with a tail sticking out of its mouth, thrashing about like crazy. "Put that down." There was nothing to put down really, just a bloody tail, still thrashing far faster than you can imagine. Yuck.

Cats belong inside. Just sayin’

Our new cat has been bringing in live lizards, sans tail.

My cat dropped a live rat on my head at 2 in the morning. I swear I woke up half the neighbourhood.

I assume mine was trying to keep the universe in balance. The dead ones count as dead. Cat has also brought me half a mouse - which I think counts as 'more than dead'. But another time brings me a slightly stunned but quite alive mouse - which I assume counts has "less than dead". Thus the universe is back in balance and I'm up 2 1/2 dead mice and one live one I hope isn't pregnant. :)