The dark brings the mouse
The whiff of hunt in the nose
Is time for the kill
„Ready“ Tabby.
„Of course, it’s getting slowly darker and the earth is starting to move“
This was the signal for them to be on their way, evening for evening the same ceremony. Fluffy was blind caused by an unfortunate meeting with a car so he decided to curl up in a quiet corner and dream of the life that Tabby and Nera would meet on their way on their evening excursion. First of all she had a look through the window and saw the two cats stealthily making the way over the grass and through the bushes remembering how it used to be when she went with them, although they never really stayed together.
Meanwhile Tabby decided to go her own way.
“See you back at our house in a couple of hours Nera. If there is no game on its way I will have to fill up my stomach with those chicken flavoured pellets that our humans put out for us. We should both return before the moon is at its highest peak because afterwards Mr. Human goes to bed and when we are inside he closes everything so that Fluffy cannot get out.”
“In that case I am off to see what can be found before.”
Nera was swaying along, being rather overweight, when she met up with Mr. Grey, the cat living opposite.
“Found anything worth making a meal of Mr. Grey” She asked.
“There is plenty of livestock around this evening Nera. Take the field to the left at the bottom of the garden. The farmer harvested the grass this morning and left it to dry during the day. That disturbed our mouse food luckily. Just put your paw down a moushole and feel around. I’m sure you will find a few. “
“Thanks for the tip” said Nera and made her way to the field with the mice. She sniffed her way along and caught the aroma of moving mice and felt satisfied. You can just embrace the Summer evenings with everything they have to offer.
“You have to be careful.” she thought. “ If the old owl is up in the tree he might pounce down to take a mice or two himself, so must make sure I don’t get in his way. I don’t want to feel his claws on my back. So here is the field and it is just teeming with life. A couple of beetles roaming around, but who eats beetles. They stink and taste horrible. I will leave them for the birds during the day. Shame that the birds sleep at night, now that would be a feast. Mouse for the main meal and as a desert a nice little bird. You can’t have everything. When I think of poor old Fluffy sitting at home and having to do his hunting during the day. All he gets is a butterfly or perhaps a housefly, although now and again Tabby drags a mouse home to show our humans and leaves it in front of the door. If Fluffy finds it first than he has a little present from us for breakfast.”
In the meanwhile Tabby was on her way. “Nearly there” went through her feline brain “just over the road. First of all must pick up my ears and turn in all directions, you never know if one of those cars is on its way. They don’t bite or fight like a normal living thing, they just push you out of the way, or in the worst case you get squashed flat on the ground. Terrible things cars, should be banned from cat paths. Well the road looks safe enough so let’s do a quick sprint and get to the other side. Made it, and now to my favourite hunting grounds, the villa. A big old house where no-one really lives any more except for a couple of servants, but the grounds surrounding it are a paradise for us cats. Teeming with wild life. Not only mice, but moles and even rabbits. The trouble with the rabbits is that they a just a little bit too big to drag home. I usually eat what I can, but have to leave at least half of it, although sometimes I meet the red cat who lives near, the one they call Roshti and he helps me to finish the rabbit. Now he’s a cat that one is. I had to show him how to behave when he arrived in our territory. Wanted to fight with every other cat that moved, but with a little help from Nera we showed him the way to go. He even managed to chase me and Nera through the cat door one evening and slept on our play centre all night. Mrs. Human was very annoyed and soon got rid of him, but it was then when we cats decided to show him who the paw boss was. After a couple of hisses and scratching in Roshti’s direction he soon got the message and since then he is very polite and would not dare to impede on our hunting grounds without asking permission. Talk of the devil and there he is.
Evening Roshti, had a good hunt up to now.
“Evening Tabby. It’s a nice moonlit night, although who needs a moon, I can see just as well without.”
“That’s true Roschti, although there is a bit of an advantage as you can see the shadows much better; things that move in the night
“Look Tabby, there goes a mole, let’s grab it.“ The two cats made of but Tabby was there first and pounced on the mole. Two minutes later and there was nothing left of Mr. Mole.
“Well done Tabby” said Roshti, “my turn now I feel movement beneath my feet.” He put his paw into the next gap in the earth and pulled out a mouse.
“Looks a bit tough to me” said Tabby “I think you have got one of those mice from last year, and smells a bit funny.”
“You are right there” said Roschti “lets play with him a bit” but as the two cats wanted to push the mouse around he made off as fast as he could.
“That one was no good Roshti, too fast for us and clever. You do your thing and I will do mine, I think two cats scare the mice off” and with that last remark Tabby skipped down the path to the garden of the villa. Tabby had her secret places and did not want Roshti to accompany her. Suddenly after spending an house tracking mice and their like, Tabby saw the moon was almost at its highest point in the sky and chased off home, where she met Nera on the way.
“How did it go Nera” she asked
“Same as usual, a little bit of field mouse, some mole and one of those big mice, but I left it alone as it looked more like a rat to me and they are not so good to eat. Need a bit of chewing and smell a bit as well. How did it go with you Tabby?”
“Caught a few mice actually, but decided that some nice chicken pellets would be welcome and a dish of water. Let’s go home before the humans disappear for the night, otherwise we won’t be able to go out once they are in bed. Funny animals humans, they sleep at the best moments.”
“I know Tabby” answered Nera “they just enjoy the day and its bright lights and noise and we cats are satisfied with embracing the night.”
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