We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect that life is better than death.

But if the mouse were a German pessimist mouse, he might not think that the cat had beaten him at all.
He might think he had beaten the cat by getting to the grave first.

Or he might feel that he had actually inflicted frightful punishment on the cat by keeping him alive.

Just as a microbe might feel proud of spreading a pestilence, so the pessimistic mouse might exult to think that he was renewing in the cat the torture of conscious existence.

It all depends on the philosophy of the mouse.