Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 December 2005 22:16:11
He looked so sweet and cosy, curled up there by the easy chair, and I couldn't bear to put him out into the kitchen for the night. "Charlie, if I leave you in tonight, do you promise not to bring me a mouse at 3am?"
I should have known better than to trust a cat.
I knew what time it would be when I turned the light on, awoken by a persistant mewing at my bedroom door. Yes, 3am on the dot. I very carefully slid my door ajar, just in time to see a tiny creature shoot into the bathroom, pursued by a determined feline. I grabbed Charlie by the scruff of the neck and relocated him in the lounge, door firmly shut to prevent him participating in the ensuing fun and games. One tiny and particularly agile little mousey, running round and round the bathroom floor and decidedly difficult to catch. I couldn't believe the tiny gaps he was able to negotiate in his determination not to be caught. Waste paper bin in one hand and large sheet of cardboard in the other, I managed to pin him in a corner of the room and begin to manoevre him in when.. well, how did that happen? .. he was suddenly in the opposite corner of the room, sticking his tongue out at me impudently.
3.30 a.m. and finally I have a waste-paper-basketful of tiny mouse and am out in the garden in bare feet and dressing gown, releasing my new friend into the wild again and ensuring he'd had the sense to make the most of his chance for freedom before I let out a most indignant Charlie.
Of course, I couldn't get back to sleep. Oh no, I was far too awake for that. I decided to read for a while, knowing full well that before I'd finished a few sentences I'd be well away to the land of Nod. Pah. A book and a half later, I decided that maybe reading was not the answer.
Cats. Who'd have 'em?