Caturday!

ICHC

The alarm of choice appears to be small woolly mice with bells on their necks this week. Curse the day we ever bought them toys. Especially noisy little toys. Bandicoot has now adopted one of Zingiber's more obnoxious habits — every night, as soon as the lights are out, he waddles downstairs, "catches" (yeah, right, fatso) one of the mice, and begins the loud trilling call that cats use to signal other cats regarding the imminent massacration of a particularly choice or tasty piece of prey. Shaking the poor mouse vigorously, he ascends, with a muffled meow and a heavy tread, all accompanied by the tinkling of the mousie's bell, scandalized at the failure of the hoominz at La Casa de Los Gatos to notice, admire, and praise his mouse-dispatching skillz.

We am dem culpritz

Note small woolly mouse in foreground with red wool tail and golden bell attached by red wool.

This usually gets the other cats all excited. Some come to praise in loud tones. Others come to admire. Still others come to steal the prey. Soon, the chase is on. Two twenty-pounders thundering around the bedroom, cannoning off furniture and other obstacles, while the other three, lighter fellows engage in some hearty face-punching, mouse-stealing, tail-biting, and the like.

Shenanigans increased by the slippery smoothness of the hardwood floor which often sends one or more of the offenders caroming under the bed to hit a wall (that runs close by our ears) with a resounding thud. You wonder if they're wearing protective gear that we don't know about. By rights, they should all, at this point, have multiple broken bones. I would, if I crashed into a wall with so much noise.

In the event, the desired effect is achieved. We are wakened, furious, and unable to go back to sleep for quite a while. Time we spend smoking frantically on the front porch with a glass of wine, while thinking the nastiest possible thoughts about pets, cats, people, sleep, and politics in general.

Life with cats. Often more entertaining than TV, until it comes time to pay the piper.

Stumble It!