Our Lodger Finally Pays Rent.

Winter seems to be the time to give back.

Who wouldn't like to be inside in a warm cozy house when it's freezing outside, but I have to admit that a little furry rodent isn't my idea of an ideal house guest. These fellows are mostly out of sight, but never out of mind.

Having grown up with the Tom & Jerry show, I tend to think that cats in general catch mice. No one told us that they had to be hungry cats and therein lies the problem. La Princessa is living the life of the rich and famous feline, and little does she know that her mummy is thinking of knitting her a stylish jersey. Won't that be fun to put on. Sturdy gloves needed.

Two nights ago it was full moon and a beautiful one at that. Full moon does affect me ( of course Bob might say that I'm the same all year round, which could be taken either way! ) and when I heard La Princessa running up and down inside the bedroom, clearly having fun, I thought she took after me.

Only when her mad dashes over crinkly newspaper were drowning out the sound of television, did I get up with an intention of dropping a bit of a scold or at least removing the noisy paper. The latter I did and at 2.30 am nearly jumped a foot high when a tiny mouse dropped out of it and ran for cover.

The big Mausi with a grin on her mouth ( yes, seriously cats do grin ) hot footed after her and as this tiny mouse had been chased for an hour at least, it wasn't that fast anymore. It became a pirouetted dance: Cat carrying wriggling mouse in her mouth, dropping it and then chasing it, finally putting a paw on the tail and thus stopping her.

It's not often I wake up the Bobster when he is clearly snoring away, but some domestic duties need to be shared.

" Bob, wake up. Mausi caught a mouse. Help, she's dropping it all over the house. "

Let's us just say, that he was none too pleased with me or with Mausi, but to his credit, he went to have a look. Rather a spectacle to see our treasured darling flitting all over the house with a life bait in her mouth. Good lord, at one stage she growled at us with lionesseque contralto. Oh my, what has happened to our little kitty?

Anyway, Bob, a man of action, fetched an empty bowl and started running after the two. Only on the third try did he manage to cover the mouse, although by that stage the poor thing was tres exhausted. Bob slipped a magazine under the bowl and went outside at about 3 am to release this little mouse. As I reminded him later, it might have been a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire, as we have a parade of hungry feral cats living in our yard.

La Princessa sulked for a bit but then proceeded to park herself on my stomach were she fell asleep with exhaustion. In fact she slept the whole day in order to regain her hunting strength...and thank goodness she did because just about half an hour ago, Bob rescued another little mouse. Hopefully not the same one from the night before...

Biggi