Norie, the Bug Zapper!

Posted on by Joyful2bee
Norie getting a belly suntan?

I may have written previously about how Norie protects me from bugs. Being on the ground floor and with a door to the porch, screened in though it is, sometimes bugs will crawl in and go around the edges of the living room and end up anywhere inside.

Norie loves to come running when I tell her there is a bug! However, her protection does not extend to large spiders or bugs she considers too big for her to eat or kill. Unfortunately I have found little, dead, blue tailed lizards, or ones with part of their tails missing, who escaped Norie in my condo home.

One day I heard something under the couch. When I pulled the couch away from the wall, I just managed to capture an escapee with a missing tail. (The poor little thing was scared to death.) I try to catch lizards or big bugs with a cup; slide a piece of cardboard under it; and flip the cup over with the bug under the cardboard and escort the little invader out to the yard.

I have had an occasional silverfish in the bathroom. So in the morning Norie leads me into the bathroom and does a perimeter check as soon as I turn on the light! We haven’t had any lately but she still goes ahead of me and “clears the area” for me. If I see one I call, “Norie there’s a bug!” She races in and eats it, if she can see it.

Herein lies a problem: Cats, or at least Norie, can’t see what’s on the end of their nose; But instead can see out of both eyes around that spot. So sometimes one paw lands right on the bug and she continues to look for it! Or I point to the bug and she looks all around. (I don’t think she understands what pointing at or saying, “There it is,” means. So I direct her to move over some or make the bug move and she goes for it.

She even goes into the bathroom closet to see if there are any bugs in there. I always reward her with praise and “Thank you, Norie!” There have been a few times when, although I did not see a silverfish, I saw her jump as though capturing one with her front paws. She then leans over as if to eat it and then smacks her lips like she is eating one! This is a clever subterfuge to get a treat, so I just say, “Good job, Norie!”

Once out in the hallway of the building a cricket was sighted by my bug zapper. She caught it and ate it! (Yuck, but I said “Thank you, Norie!”) She may eat a tiny spider but not one of the big ones!

So as you can see Norie is a big help to me and makes me laugh too!

15 thoughts on “Norie, the Bug Zapper!”

  1. We try to capture lizards and bugs in a cup too, and then evict them. Some lizards are able to “drop” their tails when a predator grabs them. The lizard then grows a new tail. Marvelous escape mechanism! There is some anecdotal evidence that the blue-tailed lizards are toxic to cats, and indeed I think this happened to one of our cats long ago – he showed symptoms but they cleared – so I try to make sure our cats don’t consume them. That’s not always easy to do, of course!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Leah. I didn’t know the blue tailed lizards are toxic for cats. I saw one yesterday but it was well out of Norie’s reach. I am glad to know the lizards can drop their tails. Amazing escape mechanism. You certainly know your cats. Thank you for telling me this.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. You have an excellent bug zapper. It is so much fun to watch cats chase and catch what they can that they see move. I am enjoying your posts about Norie.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Mags! She is so funny when she fakes catching a bug! The smacking lips sounds are so funny! So happy you liked this one. I am thinking to publish a book on Amazon about her. She is really something special, at least to me.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.