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Where We Left Off:
Detective Gus finally caught up with a shrew he’d been after for months. This shrew has connections to the Moretti Crime Family.
**FAIR WARNING** There are photos showing the dead mouse and the killing wound. For the most part, it looks like a peaceful body except for that.
The Killers:
July brought more than the unbearably disgusting swamp pants humidity. It also brought us a dead body.
On Sunday morning of July 7 at approximately 06:45AM, The Butler took over the task of distributing the birdseed and peanuts to the critters at the western border of the Winchester-Nabu estate. Gus and I were near his favorite stakeout location close to the sundial and the Moretti rock fortress. Gus was in full surveillance detective mode and had made himself comfortable. It took some time before he was ready to move on and investigate a new crime.
I discovered a fluffy feather which appears to be a Great Horned Owl feather. Gus and Dyson Moretti were busy giving each other the stink-eye. Both of us may have had murder on our minds but in completely different ways. That’s when The Butler came over to the fern garden to tell me what he discovered.
“Come on, Gus,” I said, “We have a new assignment.” I mentioned he was comfortable, right? He had to be carried to the crime scene.
“Weird, right?” The Butler said and I had to agree.
Why would an animal kill another and then leave it there? Why wouldn’t it be eaten or take back to a den/nest for the family? A mouse is tiny and I doubt it could be shared amongst anything cat sized which means it probably wasn’t a bobcat kitten. A regular domestic cat though, the same question comes up—why not eat it the prey?
Gus and Oliver have only eaten things they’ve caught on rare occasions. For Gus, those occasions typically involve going to the cellar, retrieving cave crickets, and crunching on part of them so as to leave some of the armored body and scary legs for me to find in the dark as I step on them. I believe there was one time when Gus ate a newborn mouse in one gulp which I’m pretty sure was done on a dare orchestrated by Ollie. These two felines are extremely well-fed and in fact, over-fed. They don’t need a mouse for sustenance.
Victimology
At the time of finding the mouse’s body, here’s all we knew:
- some kind of mouse (more details below); suspected to be a type of Deer Mouse which are known to carry hantaviruses, Lyme disease carrier agents, and bot flies;
- a dark undercoat gradient to tan for the top fur while the gradient became black to white on the belly;
- the subject had pink hands and feet;
- the mouse is approximately one-inch wide (25.4 mm);
- the condition of the fur going in different directions is consistent with having been handled by another creature, even human;
- there were early stages of insect activity on the body; and
- there was little blood on the body which means the heart stopped quickly.
![close up from above, a dead white-footed mouse female is face-down (prone) in the grass next to a measuring tape; caption: This victim is approximately 6 inches in length from nose tip to tail tip. Caption: I tried to straightened [sic] him [sic] out as best I could with one hand.](https://www.catdetectivecases.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Mouse-Murder-Victim-Discovered_20240707_wm-5-300x300.jpg)
Post-Mortem Determinations
The manner of death for this mouse was homicide. The wounds present were not accidental nor self-inflicted. They were also not ruptures from any natural cause.
Before jumping any conclusions about how the mouse died, there was initial consideration given to poisoning. The Grumpy Old Man has been using funnel style containers of rodent killer. The container is jabbed into the dirt. Then the seal is opened and the poison put into the hole which is then covered up with dirt. Like all rodent poison and lawn products, it claims to be safe for pets. I guess you better hope your animal companion isn’t a bomb-detecting rat. Did you know you can sponsor those?
I held a funeral for the Mouse:
The body was examined for a long as I could stand the bug activity. I suffered with the psychosomatic urges to shred my own skin, cry, and immediately run for shower. I did the best I possibly could before I could not take any more.
The mechanism of death was severe puncture trauma to vital organs. The lack of blood on the outside of the body told us that this victim’s heart had stopped pumping quickly. The blood was primarily around the largest wound which was on the victim’s right side. A small mouse who probably weighed 20 grams likely didn’t have a lot of blood that would have pooled on the ground. Gus and Oliver determined that the location of the crime scene was the secondary location and not where the killing injuries initially took place.
The victim’s body was still pliable. The head and jaw were stiffened in stage 2 of rigor mortis. The front paws were curled. The eyes were opened about 60-70% when inspection began; they were closed by the end. There was no sign of breathing from the beginning.
Further Identification Details
Once we were back in the Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency offices, I uploaded the photos to iNaturalist to confirm whether this was in fact a North American Deer Mouse (Genus Peromyscus). I was on the right track, but I received even more specifics from a community member named Michael, a mouse expert.
[back to Victimology]“The slightly scaly tail looks like a leucopus,” he wrote as he made the species change suggestion to reflect P. leucopus or White-footed Mouse. He followed it up with another note: “Also this is definitely a female.”
The Suspect Pool
We cast a large net at first and considered wolpertingers, Jersey Devil-Deer, any vampyric creature, raccoons, and groundhogs. We narrowed the list down to the subfamily F. felinae (cat creatures).
It seemed more reasonable to focus on domestic cats (strays or roaming house cats) and use some averages. For this, I used Gus as my control subject. Once again, I turned to Shark Science (documentaries on NatGeoTV’s SharkFest and Discovery’s SharkWeek which were also used in our rabbit dossiers) for inspiration in determining whether the wounds on the mouse victim could have been made by a domestic feline.
In order to get the measurements of a particular shark’s bite force in pounds per square inch (psi) or to get the measurements of the bite radius or tooth to tooth in order to compare against surfboards, victims’ wounds, or analagous victims, the researches make various kinds of test dummies. They’ve used fake seals. I’ve seen them use plates shoved into the jaws of sharks at they’re biting through chum. On Mythbusters, they often used ballistic gel or dead pigs as analogs for human flesh. And this year for the first time, I saw a shark research team also use ballistics gel (so called because it’s used by law enforcement) on a stick.
I wasn’t in the mood to try and get Gus to bite me. How would I get those measurements? What kind of silicone rubbery substance would Gus be willing to bite?
Cheese!
Or in this case—Fake Cheez!
Problems began immediately when Gus, my control subject, would only lick the cheez slice. He finally bit it hard, but pulled away. That’s when the slice began to fall apart. I think I managed to get a usable sample, but it was the only one. Not a great way to replicate data using the scientific method.
Fortunately, Gus still has his glorious fangs. I am bitter about them being called “canines” when all carnivores have them—even vegans who opt out have them. Many of Gus’ teeth were removed.
Despite all the troubles in the lab, we confidently concluded that the murderer is a domestic feline.
Suspect #1 Bud
Doppelgus aka “Bud” has been seen on one of the trailcams during July. He appeared on the 13th and 21st. We have a long history with Bud lurking around. His presence causes confusion and sometimes panic when the humans think Gus has escaped to the great outdoors.
Bud is certainly a cat sidhe like our Gus as he bears the traditional markings of a white patch on his chest and belly. Those “domino dots” signify that cats with them are part of the most ancient cat fae. Other cats can be fairy cats with different markings, but there’s a noble heritage for those bearing the special markings of the original line.
We have security footage of Bud pouncing on some kind of prey not terribly far from where the mouse’s body was found. Even if it doesn’t prove Bud is the murderer of this mouse, he is comfortable using it as a hunting ground—just like Suspect #2.
Suspect #2 The Tabby
The Cook has been making numerous complaints every week about a stray cat outside her door. This stray cat meows loud enough for her to hear. The situation then becomes something that the detective agency should be solving. But how?
Outside strays cause a primal force to rear its ugly head in both Oliver and Gus. They end up attacking each other. It’s especially bad for Ollie. He goes full Mr. Hyde and can’t control himself. Gus is more like She-Hulk. He needs a time out to de-poof and check that his surroundings are safe. Then he’s fine. Gus will then insist on sticking his nose intimately up Ollie’s butt to verify that the stray cat—or entity—has not shapeshifted into an Ollie form. Since it’s always been the real Oliver up to now, the constant butt sniffing increases Ollie’s aggression.
We do not have good photos of this stray cat. We also know there are more than two roaming cats around, but the one who meows loudly is likely a tabby that Gus and I saw for a couple of seconds during Batman Time before it ran into the shadows.
Case Findings:
Oliver had a lot to say about these intruders. He was so incensed that he had to take to the bed. More factually, the cardboard box. He slept for what felt like an eternity, but when he awoke, he felt enlightened by a Divine Spirit.
Like Hercule Poirot, our marmalade tabby with pristine white gloves gathered everyone in the parlor.
“After studying all the evidence, including the photographs of the body and the bite radius experiment, I conclude that the killer—,” Ollie was interupted.
“It wasn’t me!” Gus whined.
“We know!” Everyone else said in unison.
“Oh, was that dead body evidence?” The Grumpy Old Man shifted his eyes from side to side. “I, uh, might have run over that with the lawn mower.”
I yelled out, “What? How could you?”
It took a couple of minutes for everyone to settle down and for the summation to proceed. We still had no name for the mouse victim. And, now, no body either.
Oliver continued, “No, my dear cousin, you are not the killer. Not exactly. But it is your look-a-like, your doppelgänger! It is Bud!”
Everyone gasped. I fainted because this murder mystery has exhausted me to my very core.
Case Status: Closed
Resources:
Marlett, Rachel. “Vertebrate Collectionthe Department of Biology.” Edited by Chris Yahnke, UWSP, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 29 Apr. 2004, www3.uwsp.edu/biology/VertebrateCollection/Pages/Vertebrates/Mammals%20of%20Wisconsin/Peromyscus%20leucopus/Peromyscus%20leucopus.aspx.
Radhakrishnan, Rohini. “Rigor Mortis: Overview, Causes, 6 Stages, Duration, Death.” MedicineNet, MedicineNet, 25 June 2024, www.medicinenet.com/what_are_the_stages_of_rigor_mortis/article.htm#6_stages_of_rigor_mortis.
Medical Reviewer: John P. Cunha, DO, FACOEP Medically Reviewed on 6/25/2024