Cat helps tenants catch 17 mice while maintenance keeps making excuses so they deliver evidence during peak touring hours and watch the landlord scramble: ‘We could hear her SCREAMING at the maintenance guy about his request’

Cats have always moonlighted as furry landlord supervisors, delivering progress reports in the form of deceased rodents with the professionalism of quality control inspectors. 

When apartment maintenance operates on the same level of scientific rigor as elementary school science fairs, these feline consultants become the only reliable source of pest documentation, complete with photographic evidence that would impress crime scene investigators.

Author image for Etai Eshet Etai Eshet
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  • It was autumn 2019, shortly after the first frost and our cat brings us a mouse.
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  • The Mouse Story - with pictures

    "The evidence of mice is our pictures of SIXTEEN mice with our cat over time"
    via DarriusUnity

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • We take a picture and report to maintenance. They check out the apartment, see no
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  • set a trap and tell us to let them know if it happens again. A few nights later
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  • we get another mouse, and then the next night we get two more mice. We call maintenance,
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  • they claim to have found the issue behind the stove. They "patch it" and leave. We get
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  • Cheezburger Image 10534110208
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • another mouse - they claim there is an issue by our washer dryer and they patch that.
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  • Then there are more mice. We request a professional exterminator daily and they refuse.
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  • Eventually maintenance. gets sick of our calls. We've never got a mouse in our trap, and
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • there's no mouse The only evidence of mice is our pictures of SIXTEEN mice with our cat over time.
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  • So the maintenance guy comes up with a clever idea. He says next time we get a mouse,
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  • we need to keep it and bring it to the main office. They can study it, and figure
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  • The genius of slumlord economics lies in denying problems until they literally walk through the front door. Maintenance teams master the art of creative patching, moving from imaginary holes behind stoves to phantom gaps near washers, treating structural integrity like a game of whack-a-mole where the moles keep winning. When photographic evidence of seventeen different mice fails to convince management, they pivot to amateur zoology, demanding tenants become specimen collectors as if rodent ghosts carry GPS tracking and detailed autobiographies about their migration patterns. The underlying theory seems to be that if you make pest control inconvenient enough, tenants will simply accept sharing their lease with extended mouse families.

  • out where it's coming from. My husband I are are well educated and know that's just....not how mice work.
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  • The landlord doesn't want to pay an exterminator and they don't believe the issue is as bad as it is.
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  • It's time for a little malicious compliance. A night or two later we get a mouse. We put
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  • it in a garbage can in the tub until morning. Unfortunately the little guy doesn't make it though the night.
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  • In the morning we bag our friend and head to the leasing building. The apartment manager is there, as are
    via pokemonprofessor121
  • several families waiting to begin a tour of the complex. We explain to our landlord about the now 17 mice,
    via pokemonprofessor121
  • and how we're now suppose to personally deliver each mouse to her. She is looks at my husband horrified,
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  • Enter malicious compliance in its most aromatic form: one departed mouse delivered during peak touring hours, complete with detailed presentation about the ongoing wildlife sanctuary operating within the building. Nothing motivates professional intervention quite like potential tenants receiving unsolicited seminars about rodent roommates while apartment managers field angry phone calls from maintenance staff who never expected their brilliant ideas to materialize in garbage bags. Sometimes the most effective property management tool is a well-timed biological specimen and an audience of prospective rent payers watching the landlord's reputation decompose in real time.

  • grabs her cell phone and heads to a back room. We can hear her SCREAMING at the maintenance guy about his request.
    via pokemonprofessor121
  • SPEDRUNNING! #AGD 2018
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  • In the meantime we're explaining to her potential tenants the issues we've been facing. A couple minutes later
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  • she returns, tosses the mouse in the garbage and says they'll be paying a professional exterminator to take a look at the building.
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  • The Exterminator found hundreds of entry points which get taken care of. That was the last mouse we ever had in that apartment.
    via pokemonprofessor121

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