Shy Sophia lost her cuddle-buddy when Patches’ dramatic personality change saw her migrate to beds by the front window, where Sophia is reluctant to venture.
Poor Sophia. She often tiptoes in, while everyone is safely asleep and it’s plain that she would like to get up in that window, but too often one of our other little darlings chases her.
Not because they want to harm her, but just because it’s so much fun. Beasts.
This day she actually sat for a moment, but when she saw my head turn, she fled. All I ever do is extend my hand with a food bowl and occasionally she will allow me to tickle her chin but she is still afraid.
However, since Patches moved out of Sophia’s orbit, Lily has been adopted as Sophia’s best friend.
Lily is totally independent and secure, so it is rather touching to see that she keeps Sophia company.
At the moment though, Lily is complaining loudly as Grant moves back and forth to the garage with equipment.
He is repairing the hole that arrived in the kitchen ceiling one wet night. He had to wait for cooler weather before getting up into the crawl space under the roof.
We semi-joked about sticking a tennis ball in the hole and forgetting about it, but we have been aware of creatures living up there and it seemed prudent to investigate, given what mice did to my car.
The investigation was never going to be good news and I could tell from exasperated sighs and grunts that it was not going well up there above my head.
A short while ago, the man came down briefly for more gadgets and delivered the verdict:
Mice have been eating the electrical wiring.
He’s not as concerned about the house burning down, as that the cats might succumb. I knew of someone who had such a thing happen. I can’t imagine the awfulness.
So you would think, wouldn’t you, that mice are not top of the pops currently?
Yet last night I got unraveled over the fate of one such rodent. About to retire with my book, I noticed Willow taking suspicious interest in my bookcase and there, hiding behind it was a mouse.
When one of the cats has caught one and then dropped it, my rescue kit is quite effective because the victim tends, then, to be a bit stunned. One has to do quick triage to decide if saving is the right thing to do.
Assuming that it is, I scoop the mouse up and escort it out into the night.
Last night it was an uninjured mouse fully engaged in fleeing. Wedged behind my bookcase, it had two options and I could only manage to cover one at a time.
The other member of the household was otherwise engaged, which left me chasing a mouse around the room while fending off cats who thought this was a tremendous game.
Alas. My flagging sense of humour failed.
It’s never pretty when that happens.
Bits of furniture were manhandled out of the way, cat related items sailed through the air. I got very hot and bothered.
“What is going on?” inquired Grant, tardily arriving on the scene. He joined in the chase but soon abandoned it telling me I should leave it up to the cats.
“I don’t want to hear it scream and I don’t want to hear ‘crunch crunch'” I wailed.
Fortunately I was spared those sound effects.
But early this morning I was awakened by the unique sound of cat regurgitating rodent. Which I then had the singular delight of dealing with.
Now we have to mouse-proof the crawlspace and figure out whether our wiring is seriously in jeopardy.
It’s all part of living in the country, I suppose.
I fully sympathise with the mouse situation. I’ve spent many frustrated hours trying to rescue uninjured mice from my cat with various results. I hate witnessing their terror and ultimate death throes. It’s wonderful when I manage to liberate a poor wee soul back to the garden leaving my frustrated cat looking on in disgust from the window. Doesn’t always end well though!
So much greenery around the house …why can’t the mice go over there and enjoy the lovely open space?
It is nice of you to be kind to the mice, but I would have put old-school spring traps up there in a heartbeat. Once they become established and chew wiring, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately for the mice, they are not an endangered species, so I would not hesitate to get rid of them, by any means necessary.
Best wishes, Pete.
Grant is in charge of that aspect. He doesn’t like doing it but the corpses get put out for birds, so that makes it a little more acceptable.