Saturday Night Fun

About 10pm, the broom fell over in the kitchen. I was ready to yell at Cain for being on the countertop and going for the butter. He was already on the floor, growling a bit and he had something in his mouth, something with a long tail. A mouse! He finally caught a mouse!

See, Cain likes to lay facing the corner where 2 cabinets meet, in a very Blair Witch Project pose. And it's an old house, full of holes and I was sure there were mice around but as long as I didn't see them I was cool. And the benefit of having had a dozen different cats in residence over 3 1/2 years is that I am sure the mice let each other know that this is a CAT house and they should be careful. And some of you recall the previous times I saw that the cats had caught mice (if you don't I can repost the story) and what fun that was.

This is 3 years later. Cain weighs 20 pounds almost, and he's not that fat. And he gets excited and moves fast. No longer a kitten.

So he runs into the living room and I grab a paper towel to grab it by the tail. Oh dear God, it's not dead. Occasionally I have had thoughts of animal cruelty, of buying a mouse or a hamster to let it loose to let the cats stalk it, you know, for fun on their birthday or Christmas or something.

Because this clearly is fun. He is chasing the mouse, getting in front of it, wapping it with his paw, carrying it in his mouth. Cain ignores balls, feather on a stick bores him, fake mousies bore him. This is fun. Specs is all pissed, watching him, puzzled, clearly thinking "Boys! Do something tiny like catch a mouse and it's like they want you to let them boss you. Just eat it. Bite me!"

It has punctures in the side, but he hasn't broken the spine because it moves. It does its best to get away. He catches it again. Mousie gets into the kitchen and makes it down the back steps. Cain follows. I run after Cain. What the hell!

We're in the basement. Cain chases it around. I grab a bucket and a dustpan and try to corner it. I am not sure what we are going to do with it. Toss it outside to freeze to death?

Finally it runs over by the litter boxes and gets under one of the shelving units. Cain tries to convince it to come back out for another round. I scoop boxes and reflect.

And then we go to bed.