The failure to be a cat, Part 1

We inherited our oldest cat (almost 14) from our former next door neighbour. He came as a "package deal" with his much more intelligent calico sister. Sadly she passed away 5 years ago. He was distraught, so we provided him a week later with a tiny bundle of ginger fur to love. After the initial terror (his, not the kitten's), he fell in love with the little scrap, and they have been best buds every since. Our third cat, a tabby, was purchased from the SPCA, with a view to apprenticing him to our loveable elder statesman. Twas not to be. He is loathed by Ms Ginger and ignored by our eldest, largely because he has no sense of decorum. Nose butting the old guy at 40km an hour, or stealing food or ramrodding awake a slumbering OAP is not the stuff of endearment.

In the last 24 hours I have seen ridiculous behaviour with Mr OAP and Ms Ginger. The latter managed to be oblivious to a large rabbit on the driveway yesterday. She was happily skipping towards the house with a rabbit in myopic hot pursuit. The bun swerved off onto the lawn before she was alerted to him. This morning Elderly Gent was to be seen sniffing the grass and sauntering around the lawn, surrounded by at least a dozen ground feeding birds.

At least our lonely tabby knows how to be a decent cat. Last night was the first night since the beginning of autumn that he has brought a live rodent into the bedroom. Husband slept through me charging around the bed with the large preserving jar until I'd cornered the wee thing behind his bedside table. It was duly evicted through an open front door and over the verandah. In the dark, I saw Mr OAP having a nocturnal saunter. I thought to myself, somewhat bleary brained "I hope that darn cat doesn't re-catch the mouse" I had noted its leg had been bitten so it may not be able to run fast.

This morning when I went into the kitchen I caught the shadow of a dead mouse in the corner of the living room, and a pleased large 14 year old cat parked close by.

Bless him, he thought I would like a nice mouse with my cornflakes, recaught with only three legs!