Mom 1 Cats 0

The other morning while I was stumbling around in my bathrobe with a cup of coffee in my hand searching for my glasses I heard a distinct high pitched squeaking noise that I have come dread. It sounded just like the annual visitation of a bat. This is not an unusual occurrence in an old house (109 years to be exact) surrounded by massive maple and box elder trees. Of course there was my big old tom cat “Ollie” with his head in a corner and he was yet again holding something down with his massive de-clawed front paws….His head tilted at a curious angle. This is the exact position I found him in last year when he had indeed caught a bat. But to my relieved surprise what he was holding down was the tiniest little mouse I have ever seen. It wasn’t much bigger than the tip of my thumb and Ollie had it by the tail. The mouse was protesting vigorously!


“Great” I muttered to myself…”Ollie doesn’t know what to do with a mouse”…..But sudden genius came to me! We recently took in a stray female cat. She had a full complement of claws and had spent at least a couple weeks on her own before we found her. At least that is what our Vet thought…..For sure she will know what to do with a mouse! Excitedly I called her to the room. She came trotting in with her tail high. She went over to inspect Ollie’s prize which was still making quite a racket.

In short order a very animated game of Cat hockey with a mouse as the puck broke out on my dining room floor! Watching the mouse go back and forth from black paws to white ones I was thinking…”Oh they will kill that mouse soon” or “that little mouse will surely die of shock.” Neither of which happened. The game was well into the second half with a score of 0 to 0…It was time for the coach to step in because she was late getting ready for work. With my broom in hand I stole the puck from Ollie. I raised high my stick…I mean broom… and whacked the mouse dead with one blow. The shocked look of disappointment on their faces was unbelievable! A slap shot out the back door ended the game. The cats stalked off. Sore losers!