He doesn't enjoy the heat much, or rather, he likes to bathe in the sunshine in spring, but the height of summer is not his friend. You can't blame him, you'd be a summer grump too if you were carrying rather a lot of hot ginger fur (and perhaps a little bit of weight?! - yes, the v.e.t. did mention he should lose a few hundred grams!).
So I get all silly. I worry that he doesn't sit on my lap or want to be cuddled, I fear he loves someone else more than us and spends his days with them. I get in a bit of a tizz about it all.
And so Sniff finds ways to show his appreciation, as only cats do. A couple of nights ago we were graced with a midnight mouse hunt. Sniff kindly brought it in to show us just how exciting it can be to chase both him, and said rodent, around our living room. The prize was captured by a very on-the-ball N and given it's freedom, and what we thought was ample time to run and hide before Sniff was allowed out again.
Not so. How could two humans be so bad at this game? The aim is not to free the mouse, but to eat it! Sniff showed us just how we were going wrong by treating us to bit of ex-mouse around the flat the next morning.
Not to be deterred by his humans failings he upped the game. The night we finally got some humidity relieving rain he tried again. We were woken not by the pleasant noises of raindrops on the windows, but instead a very strange sound indeed emanating from the kitchen. Another poor mouse we assumed, so I gaily went out to do my fair share of chasing. In my sleepy haze I made the mistake of not taking my glasses, and so was peering at the strange shape on the floor, thinking how it was amazing that a mouse that spread out could still make so much noise, when it leapt into the air and emitted a mighty croak! It was a huge frog! Goodness knows how this innocent little cat had managed not only to catch the amphibian, but to get it through the cat flap in one piece!
At this discovery all rescue duties were promptly handed over to a very sleepy N. I have nothing against frogs, but they rank with slugs and snails for their potentially sliminess, at least in my head! And I wasn't about to attempt capture, not least because I had no shoes on, nor glasses, nor any idea how to go about the manouver.
In the end it took two of us, one inside and one outside, to coax the poor thing back out into the damp garden, whilst little Sniffer was trapped in the bedroom eeking for all his little lungs could managed (I like to think he was balling instructions about how the game worked!)
What remains a mystery is where the frog came from in the first place. As far as we are aware there are no ponds, streams or water holes anywhere near us.
It truly was a curious incident of a frog in the night time, and shall remain so...
I have a similar tale about the lively chipmunk and the great escape from the kitchen to the wild outdoors from whence he came. That about sums it up though. It's great how cats show their love.
ReplyDeleteWe've had a cat related frog incident here, too. We thought there were no frogs in our pond this year but the mister spotted one (I should say it made him jump) the other day when he was moving one of the marginal plants. That night, the cats wouldn't come in from the garden. When we went to investigate, a strange squeaking sound was coming from where one of the cats was sitting. Unfortunately, Buzz had also spotted the frog and wasn't content just to observe it. Hopefully, our rescue attempt wasn't too late. Said frog hasn't been seen since.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Sniff did indeed get the frog again, but in his despair at his humans inabilities at the game, simply kept it for himself!
ReplyDeleteOur tally this year is, I think, 2 mice and 3 birds - not starlings, of course, or one of the abundant wood pigeons, oh no, our two took a robin, a thrush and a blue tit........
hilarious! and cute..
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh I can't believe he caught a frog and carried it indoors! I bet they taste vile. He must really love you to bring you one!!
ReplyDeleteMy cats used to catch all kinds - their best/worst captures were a squirrel, and a bat. A bat! How you even SEE a bat to catch it in the middle of the night, I have no idea. Numerous baby rabbits, the tiniest of tiny voles and fieldmice...and not once, but twice, was I treated to a live bird flying around my bedroom first thing in the morning. But never a frog, despite the fact that they were hopping all over the garden for the taking. Yours really is mysterious....