Cat and mouse

The cat hears things we do not hear and he is fixated on a corner of the dining room. Sometimes out of nowhere he will go flying and zero in on this sliver of space between the wall and the china cabinet.

Something is there!

All I can think is that it is a mouse. Well, I am pretty sure that it is.

Once when I was sitting at the dining room table working on my Pennario project I heard this rustling. It was the tiniest sound but I picked up on it.

And so did Jeoffry.

Suddenly, soundlessly, he came walking in. He crept up to that spot and waited. And waited.

He did not nail the mouse on that occasion but at some point he will. Either that or the mouse, if it is smart, will go down the street to a house with no cat.

Meanwhile that is a picture up above that Howard took of the cat and his toy mice. The mouse in the lower left-hand corner is his particular pet. Sometimes he sleeps with it and I have seen him grooming it. We hope he will not have that relationship with the real mouse, one that fateful eventual day when they meet. But we do not think he will.

It changes my relationship with mice, to know that I am not alone and undefended. As Howard has said, every house has a mouse. And the cat is on duty. Meaning, he is always on duty! And he knows where the critters are. He shows marked interest in the lazy Susan which, we remember what once happened there. There was one other time that, again sitting working on the book, I heard a tiny rustle. On that morning the cat was napping in his carrier in the back room. I heard the rustle and thought, oh, too bad Jeoffry is in the other room asleep.

But no! I glanced back there and he had raised his head.

He was listening.

He heard!