Cat and Mouse

I'm a brave , brave mouse I go marching round the house
And I'm not afraid of anything. For danger I'm prepared,
And I'm never scared, Never sacred?
No!
I'm not afraid of anything.
by Betty Misheiker

For  a  while  now  we  have  had  a  mouse  in  the  house,  we  have  seen  the  signs .........   the corners  nibbled of  the  bread if  it  has  not  been  put  back in  the  bread  bin,  the  mouse  droppings found  here  and  there  when  you  are  tidying drawers  and  cupboards,  a  sighting  now  and  again,  and  we  have  heard  the  cat  chasing  something  up  and  down  the  passage  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  but  hey,  we  live  in  Africa  so  expect  to  have a  few  wild  animals  in  the house......  we actually   have  two  cats,  Rocky is  the  lover,  a  big  fat  cat with  about  at  much  energy  as  a  polar bear  during  hibernation  and then  there  is  Peroni .......... Peroni  is  the  cat  that  our  dog  found,  bedraggled  and  sick,  and  brought  home  when  he  was just  a  few  weeks  old,  and  although  he  gets  the  same  attention  as  Rocky  he  has  never  warmed  to us  humans,  he  is  aloof  and  hates  to  be  held,  he  has  remained  the   street  cat,  Peroni  is  the  fighter .............. the  bird  catcher............  the  locust  catcher ............. the  frog catcher ..............  the  mouse  catcher..................
This  morning  when  I got  up,  Peroni  was  in mouse catching  mode underneath  the  bookshelf in  the  passage,  after  very  careful  investigation   I realised that    the  mouse  had  gone  behind  the  bookshelf  and  was  hovering in  no  mans  land   between  the  wall and  the shelf.
It  was  one  of  those  candid  camera  moments  never  to  be  repeated ......as  I moved  the  bookshelf  the  mouse  dropped,  I  ran  screaming,  jumped  on  the bed  just  in  case  the  mouse  attacked  me ........
I  mean  it  was  all of  6  cm  long  and  a  wild  animal ..........  okay  i  am  scared  of  mice ...... all hell  broke  loose,  as  books  and  ornaments  went  flying  in  all directions  the  war  between  cat  and  mouse  was  on ........ as  I  stood  on  the  bed  I  could  only  imagine from the  noise  what  was  going  on,  but  I was  sure...  that  the  one  I  was  backing  to  win this "Cat  versus Mouse"  contest  would  be  victorious .........and  then  there  was silence ..............
When  I  was  sure  that  both  cat  and  mouse  were  gone,  I ventured  from  my  place  of  safety  on  top  of  the  bed  feeling  ridiculous  I  mean  we  are  talking   mouse  here...........  I  carefully  tiptoed  through the  house and checked   for  signs  of  cat  or  dead  mouse  nothing ............
As  I  came  onto  the  veranda  there  was  the  cat  with  the  mouse  in  its  mouth,  wanting  to  bring  it  back  inside  as  a  present  for  me .............. I never  realised how  cruel  cats  are  I always  assumed  that  when  they  have  caught  their  pray  they  killed  it  and  ate  it.......  but  to  day  I  learnt that  is  not so,  Peroni  turned into  a  stadisic  killier,  he    tormented  this  mouse  so  much  I changed  who  I  was  routing  for,  if  it  tried  to  escape  he would  catch  in  and  then  throw  it up in  the  air,  then  he  would   let  it  think  it  had a  chance  to  escape  and  just  as  it  took off ,  to  what  it thought  was  freedom,  then  he  would grab  it  again,  returning  it  always  to  the  same  place.......

This  made  me  think  how  we humans   are  like  this,  how  sometimes  we  are  the  cat  and  sometimes  we  are  the  mouse.................  how  easily  we  let  those  who  are  stronger  than us take  over  our  lives,  take  over  what  we  do,  what  we  wear,  how we  talk, how  we think and  in  a  lot  of  cases  who  we  are ........................  .which  leave  me  with  a problem  do  I  want  to  be  a  cat  or  a  mouse.................... am  I  a cat  or   a  mouse ..................

Levy and the Cats

Last week we had to take our cat Peroni to be neutered, this because he had begun to leave his mark on my furniture, I was happy to leave himwith balls, until I sat on the couch the other day and got the first hand whiff of what he had been up to .

I have spoken before about the close bond between our dog Levy And the cat Peroni, when Peroni was a few weeks old Levy found him and adopted him, as his own.Monday evening I picked up the cat, put it in the basket and off we go to the vet, the cat made a valiant attempt to escape but my daughter was stronger and we arrived there with no mishaps, the cat still firmly secured in the basket, I felt quite guilty leaving him there, there was a storm brewing and Peroni hates storms.

When we got home however it was a different story, Levy could not understand where the cat was, he knew that he had gone in the car, but also knew that he had not come out, he kept me awake the whole night he wanted to keep on looking inside the car, to let the cat out he was convinced he was still in there somewhere……………..

On Tuesday off we went to pick up the cat, I mentioned to my daughter that I hope that he is groggy so that we don’t have to fight with him all the way home, her words and I quote “ Mom he is going to be pissed, you just cut off his balls” …………………….

When we went into the vet, he couldn’t think why we were there and my daughter in her inimitable style said “ We have come for the cat without the balls” ever the elegant conversationalist………………. Makes me wonder what I was paying for during the 12 years she went to school.

At home Levy was thrilled to see his friend he had missed him so much however, we were destined to have problems and all was not well obviously Peroni smelt very different because of the anesetic and our other cat, Rocky thought that we had brought home another cat, and all hell broke loose, every time the two cats came in contact with one another they would fight, Levy the knight in shining armour would come to Peroni’s defense and this continued all night ……………. And I mean all night……………………….

The vet had said that we must keep the cat indoors for the evening, and Peroni is not an inside cat, he loves the outdoors, so it was quite a mission every time someone opened the door, he was like a bullet to get outside, eventually he gave up and went to the loo in the kitty litter, something he hates. About 10 minutes later I was on the computer and I heard water running, in my mind I wondered what it was and when it continued i got up to have a look, and there was Levy ………………. Relieving himself in the kitty litter ……………………… and in typical male fashion, his aim left a lot to be desired ………………………………

Peroni and the bird

About 4 months ago, i got home from work one day and our Labrador Levy had found a kitten, it was in a really sorry state, its eyes were all gundged up, it was full of flees, it was so thin, and wet through because Levy had been trying to lick it to death.
Well off to the vet we went, and after injections and medicines, and flea powder and antibiotics, we had a new cat. Which for a while was just called cat because we could not agree on a name.
This little kitten was wild it was about 2 weeks before you could pick it up without it trying to attack you, and if you just walked past it, it would hiss at you and then dive for cover. But as the weeks went past it learnt to accept us, and its name became Peroni. What was amazing to see was the bond between Levy and Peroni, Peroni would only sleep curled up next to Levy, and it would follow Levy around like a small child were follow a bigger brother and sister. If Peroni got locked out at night by accident, Levy would wake me up to go and let him in, it was really amazing to see.
About three weeks ago Peroni was sick so off to the vet we went again, we thought it was because he had been catching birds the vet assured us that he was still to young to catch birds.............. and that it must have been our other cat ............... ha ha .............. he lied.
I arrived home last night to a bathroom that looked like the chainsaw murdered had been let loose in it, i never realised that one bird had so many feathers, it was wall to wall feathers, the side of the bath was covered in blood where the poor bird had obviously tried to escape at the beginning of the masacre................. there was pieces of bird all over the bath room as my daughter was helping me clean up the mess she assured me that it had not been there five minutes before i got home.............. i wonder, the poor thing still had bird seed in its stomach, the sad part is i put out the bird seed. So this weekend it is off to the pet shop to get a collar with a bell on so that the bird at least has a fighting chance.
I must feel guilty about feeding the birds, it is almost like i am luring them to their death, and i am part of this awful murdering rampage the cat Peroni went on....................