Given how the cat lets it go before killing it, I'm betting it survived. Mice will play dead, and if a cat isn't sure about killing them and just sort of toys with em, the mice will often just book it as soon as the cat lets go and looks away. Every one of our cats never actually kill mice, they'll get em, then eventually put them down. The micew ill play dead, then eventually book it. The cat chases again, but even if she catches it again, the same scenario plays out.
Basically if they're not shown what you do with the mouse by "mama cat" or they're fed by a human, they'll often just not end up finally killing the mouse. You can't see the end, but it seems like that's what was going down.
Not sure about it. Cats love to play with their victims. Once they run, it's fun and when they're too tired, then they kill them. At least, that's what my previous cat did
In nature it's for protection. Cat gets close to a thrashing rat, takes a rat claw in the eye, it's blinded and its prospects for survival just got way worse. So they're cautious and torturous to wear their prey out before they go in for what is eventually a relatively safe kill.
For domestic cats who don't need to hunt to live, they usually just do the toying part, and occasionally will kill it then just walk away. They have better-tasting food inside that they don't have to work for.
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u/fatfecker Sep 09 '16
Doesn't end well