I found a mumified cat under the floor. Beware, there is a picture.

[easyrider]

One of my projects this summer is repairing the floor in the old section of our cabin. In one area it seemed kind of bouncy. This section was built in the late 1930s. To keep rodents out it is somewhat sealed up with no ventalation. The floor is built on logs as the main support for the floor joists.

When I removed the flooring to the joists in the bouncy section I could see the problem was lack of support for the floor joist meaning its now an entire floor project. On the rest of the floor I decided to just remove a section inbetween each floor joist and install a presure treated bean under the joists so the joists can be blocked.

While cutting these hole I found a mumified cat. It kind of creeped me out. It was near where the original front door was in the 1930s. We decided to google mumified cat under the floor and it said people use to place a dead cat under the house for protection from witches and evil things.

We had two Federal Judges that hung out in our cabin spur road. One was William O Douglas and the one next door was James Hovis. The story goes that to keep people wary of entering this area it was named Devils Creek and the spur road was designated Forest Service Road 666. They had to change the sign to other than 666 because in the 80s people krpt ripping off the sign.

We kind of think the cat was placed there on purpose in the 1930s by the cabin builders. Probably to keep them safe as the original occupants were the guys woring on Chinook Pass.

Anyway, here is the cat.

Bill

 

[moonstone]

EWWWW!!!!

DH & I found a reddish-brown fluff ball under a pull-out sofa at my parents sleeping cabin many years ago. We never noticed it when folding out the bed but did see it in the daylight the next morning when folding it back up. Dad kept a pie plate of warfarin in there to control the mice but a red squirrel got in and had some. When DH poked it with a stick we could see the face! Ewww! We swept it up into a dustpan and threw it in the woods. Better than having a live one under the bed while we were sleeping.

~Diane

 

[dioxide45]

The photo could have perhaps been enclosed between some spoiler tags? Not everyone wants to see that.

 

[easyrider]

The photo could have perhaps been enclosed between some spoiler tags? Not everyone wants to see that.

You are probably right so I added a beware. It isn't much different than some items seen at amusement gallery's. They have a shrunken head, mummified animals and other bizarre oddities at Marshes Museum in Long Beach that are only different than this cat because they are in the oddity museum.

Where the cat is sitting is where I eating lunch with my wife and neighbors. We all thought it was odd but not bothersome. I left it there for the weekend to frighten away the mice, lol. Actually, I was in a hurry to go party and just forgot about it.

Bill

 

[Patri]

I wonder if people specifically killed the cat for that purpose. I suppose so.

 

[clifffaith]

We sold our Painted Lady Victorian and then went to France while it was in escrow (we had already moved into our new house). Before we left we BEGGED our across the street Italian neighbors to keep the stray kitty they called Notte safe during the termite tenting. They did not. While we were in Nice we got a tearful phone call that Notte hadn’t come to eat on their porch for several days. So there is a dead kitty under our old house. And our contractor actually found a mummified raccoon under there 8 years earlier shortly after we moved in. Probably also asphyxiated by pesticides.

 

[gpj555]

I came across something similar a few years ago. It was in my mother irrigation pipe. Similar appearance but fresh enough to be very stinky. I buried it. Now I wish I could remember where as they may be a demand or mummified cats in some area's. Thanks for posting. Its a little gross but is a disclaimer required? (warning is nice.)

 

[Brett]

One of my projects this summer is repairing the floor in the old section of our cabin. In one area it seemed kind of bouncy. This section was built in the late 1930s. To keep rodents out it is somewhat sealed up with no ventalation. The floor is built on logs as the main support for the floor joists.

When I removed the flooring to the joists in the bouncy section I could see the problem was lack of support for the floor joist meaning its now an entire floor project. On the rest of the floor I decided to just remove a section inbetween each floor joist and install a presure treated bean under the joists so the joists can be blocked.

While cutting these hole I found a mumified cat. It kind of creeped me out. It was near where the original front door was in the 1930s. We decided to google mumified cat under the floor and it said people use to place a dead cat under the house for protection from witches and evil things.

We had two Federal Judges that hung out in our cabin spur road. One was William O Douglas and the one next door was James Hovis. The story goes that to keep people wary of entering this area it was named Devils Creek and the spur road was designated Forest Service Road 666. They had to change the sign to other than 666 because in the 80s people krpt ripping off the sign.

We kind of think the cat was placed there on purpose in the 1930s by the cabin builders. Probably to keep them safe as the original occupants were the guys woring on Chinook Pass.

Anyway, here is the cat.

Bill

interesting
I found a mummified mouse behind my refrigerator many years ago - probably not there for protection from evil

 

[clifffaith]

I found a dried frisbee lizard on the door jamb of the exterior door to my office at the old house. Must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time when the seldom used door was closed.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

We were newlyweds, fresh off our honeymoon and looking for the first abode of our marriage. I was starting work in San Bernardino, and we were looking for a place to rent.

We responded to an ad for 2-bedroom house for rent in the Devore area, northwest of San Bernardino, where Cajon Pass emerges onto the valley floor. This was 1974, and area was still rural. At the house, we met a realtor, representing the owner, to show us the place. From the moment we pulled up, the place looked a bit dicey. When we entered, there was a funny odor. As we toured the house, I looked in one of the bathrooms, where there was a dead squirrel floating in the toilet, that clearly had been there for some time. Needless to say ....

We ultimately wound up in a 2-bedroom cabin near Blue Jay in the San Bernardino Mountains - a much nicer place to commence our life together.

 

[easyrider]

We went to the cabin this morning and I wasnt really thinking about the mummy cat. After we got things together my wife asked me where I put the cat. I told her I left it where it was. So the cat is gone. We kind of have an idea of what took the cat. We think it was the buzzards. There was a few hanging out in the trees by the cabin. Here is a picture of the area turkey buzzard.

Bill

 

[easyrider]

there was a dead squirrel floating in the toilet

We tell the cabin users to keep the toilet lid down. I use Decon and it makes the rodents thirsty. I have had the floating squirrel in the toilet, lol.

A couple of winters ago my nephew was spending the weekend at the cabin. He woke up with a live bat on the drapes above beside the bed. He had to get the rabbis shot. I think that when a tree fell on the cabin it created an opening in the roof line. I ended up sealing the area and haven't seen a bat inside ever.

Bill

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

We tell the cabin users to keep the toilet lid down. I use Decon and it makes the rodents thirsty. I have had the floating squirrel in the toilet, lol.

A couple of winters ago my nephew was spending the weekend at the cabin. He woke up with a live bat on the drapes above beside the bed. He had to get the rabbis shot. I think that when a tree fell on the cabin it created an opening in the roof line. I ended up sealing the area and haven't seen a bat inside ever.

Bill

A little while after we moved into that cabin in the mountains, we started hearing sounds in the ceiling that I recognized right away as mice. I started set a mice trap and thought that was that. Then it happened a second time. Mouse trap set; problem gone. Third time, the trap was sprung, but no critter. Reset the trap and the same thing. Third time - rinse and repeat. By that point I figured out that we were dealing with a rat, not a mouse.

Our landlord ran the local hardware store, so he got us a rat-size spring trap. I very carefully set the trap, and tested the activator with a stick. As I suspected, if trap went off on your hand, you would be looking at a trip to ER and very possibly surgery. I reset the trap and put in the attic, loaded with bacon and peanut butter.

The next evening we heard a loud "Thwack", and I knew the trap had gone off. I went to check, and the trap had done it's work. There was a rat, with shattered neck.

I was also sure by now that we had critters getting into the house; this wasn't a resident population. I inspected all around, and couldn't see anyplace they were getting in. Finally I noticed a small hole in the ground next to the foundation (a perimeter wall). I filled in the hole, and that was that.

+++++++++++

Then there was the time I was staying at Desert Breezes, in Palm Desert. And I was awakened by a mouse crawling on my head. But that's a different story.

 

[Sandi Bo]

Did you put it back? Ya know, just in case?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DrQ]

The next evening we heard a loud "Thwack", and I knew the trap had gone off. I went to check, and the trap had done it's work. There was a rat, with shattered neck.

I like the expression: "The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse (or rat) gets the cheese."

At least it was dead. I wouldn't want to have to deal with critters caught in a glue trap.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I like the expression: "The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse (or rat) gets the cheese."

At least it was dead. I wouldn't want to have to deal with critters caught in a glue trap.

I've always preferred the spring traps to bait of any kind. I've not liked the thought of having a rotting critter corpse inside a wall or ceiling.

 

[easyrider]

Did you put it back? Ya know, just in case?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you are talking about the cat I think the forest animals got it. It's chew bone tough. It could be the turkey vultures which are unusual to see at our cabin. Yesterday was the first time I've ever seen them. We also have raccoons, cougars, bears and otters.

Bill

 

[easyrider]

I've always preferred the spring traps to bait of any kind. I've not liked the thought of having a rotting critter corpse inside a wall or ceiling.

My grand daughter wanted help making a bucket trap so we made a couple. It works pretty good but require serious checking because the critters can stink up an area pretty fast.

Bill

 

[Talent312]

I once dated a strange woman who claimed to be a witch.
I never knew I could use a dead cat for protection.
.

 

[Sandi Bo]

One day there was a turkey vulture on the shed in our back yard. I called my neighbor excited -- 'Hey Rodger, do you see the eagle on the shed' to which he replied 'That's a vulture, You got anything dead over there'? Yup - something had gotten a possum in the shrubbery right along the lot line.

 

[moonstone]

My grand daughter wanted help making a bucket trap so we made a couple. It works pretty good but require serious checking because the critters can stink up an area pretty fast.

Bill

Friends with a big RV that mice kept getting into used those but put about 8-10 inches of a mixture (1:1?) of bleach & water in the bottom of the 5 gal. bucket. They often went weeks between checking the bucket and it was never stinky. There were often several mice in there and luckily the mice found the peanut butter bait on the bucket before they did any damage to the interior of the RV.

~Diane

 

[easyrider]

One day there was a turkey vulture on the shed in our back yard. I called my neighbor excited -- 'Hey Rodger, do you see the eagle on the shed' to which he replied 'That's a vulture, You got anything dead over there'? Yup - something had gotten a possum in the shrubbery right along the lot line.

Today I saw the turkey vultures circling a short ways down river from us. Maybe the cat was taken downstream by some other critter.

Bill

 

[easyrider]

Friends with a big RV that mice kept getting into used those but put about 8-10 inches of a mixture (1:1?) of bleach & water in the bottom of the 5 gal. bucket. They often went weeks between checking the bucket and it was never stinky. There were often several mice in there and luckily the mice found the peanut butter bait on the bucket before they did any damage to the interior of the RV.

~Diane

Thanks for the tip Diane. I'm going to try the bleach.

Bill