My Cat Caper
I have to memorialize this event, although somewhat gruesome.
I woke up yesterday morning and after groping blindly for my glasses, finally pulled myself to a semi-sitting position on the bed. While slumped there, groggily trying to take stock of my state of mind and surroundings, I spied what appeared to be a hair-ball on the carpet beside the bed.
"Great," I thought, "just what I need. Another carpet to wash."
Then something caught my eye, or maybe my brain just woke up enough, and I bent down to take a closer look. Sure enough, this was no hairball, but a tiny dark grey mouse. The cat had caught a mouse. And killed it. And left it for me on my carpet. Well, it explained why he'd been spending his nights in the living room instead of the bedroom lately. He'd been a-hunting.
The reaction from both of us was torn. On the one hand, we'd known there was a mouse and didn't really care. A rat - yes. Mice? Not a big deal. So it was kind of sad to see this tiny (2 inches, maybe) little guy there on the carpet. He didn't do anything but a) be on the bottom of the food chain and b) pick the wrong house to pillage. On the other hand, if you know anything about cats, the fact that Caper left it there, perfectly preserved, on the floor rug beside the bed, means that he was making a gift of it to us. He was presenting his prize. And very neatly, too. He didn't make a mess or anything - it was a very neat job.
So we praised the cat and gave him a treat for it, because really, you can't tell a cat to not catch a mouse. And I think he would've been offended without recognition. I would've been, were I he. And although I'm sad for the mouse, I am proud of the cat. Hell, he's 13 years old and this is his first mouse.
I woke up yesterday morning and after groping blindly for my glasses, finally pulled myself to a semi-sitting position on the bed. While slumped there, groggily trying to take stock of my state of mind and surroundings, I spied what appeared to be a hair-ball on the carpet beside the bed.
"Great," I thought, "just what I need. Another carpet to wash."
Then something caught my eye, or maybe my brain just woke up enough, and I bent down to take a closer look. Sure enough, this was no hairball, but a tiny dark grey mouse. The cat had caught a mouse. And killed it. And left it for me on my carpet. Well, it explained why he'd been spending his nights in the living room instead of the bedroom lately. He'd been a-hunting.
The reaction from both of us was torn. On the one hand, we'd known there was a mouse and didn't really care. A rat - yes. Mice? Not a big deal. So it was kind of sad to see this tiny (2 inches, maybe) little guy there on the carpet. He didn't do anything but a) be on the bottom of the food chain and b) pick the wrong house to pillage. On the other hand, if you know anything about cats, the fact that Caper left it there, perfectly preserved, on the floor rug beside the bed, means that he was making a gift of it to us. He was presenting his prize. And very neatly, too. He didn't make a mess or anything - it was a very neat job.
So we praised the cat and gave him a treat for it, because really, you can't tell a cat to not catch a mouse. And I think he would've been offended without recognition. I would've been, were I he. And although I'm sad for the mouse, I am proud of the cat. Hell, he's 13 years old and this is his first mouse.