Saturday 14 December 2013

Of mice & men (& cats)

Christmas presents in a pile I was sorting out the Christmas presents that I've bought so far into piles on the floor of the front room yesterday. I do this every year so I can see if everyone has roughly the same number - important when
you have siblings - and I always have far too many for Hubbie and the boy and a much smaller pile for my Dad. He has fewer despite having a birthday on Christmas Eve and it's because he has no hobbies or interests and is not the most gracious at receiving presents. I always buy him something, but long gone are the days when I tried to get things he'd like and now I make sure it's something he can use. As a family we used to always play safe and give him Baileys or whiskey and lots of chocolate, but a few years ago he was told he was diabetic so the 'safe' presents became anything but. It does lead to some genuinely unimaginative present choices like gloves on his birthday and a matching scarf on Christmas Day - which of course he says he doesn't need.

Anyway, the present sorting, then wrapping and transporting to give to various family and friends is an annual event so our cat has witnessed it for a few years now. That is the only way I can explain what happened this morning. Before I tell you the story you need to know some pertinent facts:

1. I am short-sighted, not badly, but enough for things to appear blurry if I'm not wearing glasses

2. From the beginning I believed Neo - the cat - was a buddhist with 'love all living things' attitude to life

3. There are a lot of leaves in our garden and when Neo comes inside the house he often has them stuck in his tail

white cat and computer mouseSo this morning I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea and getting some breakfast when I heard the cat flap clatter shut and heard Neo announce his arrival. I glanced over at him and said, "Morning Neo, been bringing in leaves again have we ? Ooh that's a big one isn't it ?" As I went to leave the kitchen the 'leaf' scurried past my foot. My screams alerted Hubbie (eventually) and he came down to deal with the matter still wet from the shower and holding his towel round him in one hand and - after some coaxing - the mouse in another. Then I remembered how he used to hide Neo's kills from me so that I would not be disabused of my insane belief in the cat's non-existent buddhism. They were in it together. Neo bringing in gifts and Hubbie taking them outside again.

So the cat is channeling his inner feline Santa and Hubbie is enacting a literal interpretation of Mice and Men.

Ho Ho Ho.

16 comments:

  1. I love that you see your cat as a Buddhist! I think mine's an atheist.

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    1. Well mine is very still, mostly calm & serene. It's just the playing with (& killing) mice part that lets me down.
      What does an atheist cat do out of interest ? Boycotts church mice I guess :)

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  2. I am never ever ever getting a cat. eeeeeeeeeeeek can't cope with mice at all. Glad your husband is keeping the problem at bay. Reading this, I was expecting the cat to scratch at your wrapping paper and unwrap them all xx

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    1. He isn't that bothered about wrapping paper actually. I think he's such an old Gand at this Xmas lark he is unfazed by it all now :) xx

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  3. Replies
    1. The cat in the photo is a stunt double for mine - he looks just like that though !!

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  4. Ha ha ha! I once stepped on a frog barefooted in the middle of the night that my old cat, Rasputin, had brought in as a little offering. Yuk!

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    1. EEEWWWW !!!!!
      I walk around barefoot & it's always a bit like Russian Roulette going into the kitchen !!

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  5. my cats are too fat and lazy to catch things thankfully but my parents cat used to and it was awful! I also like to believe they don't do such things! x

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    1. Oh ours is one of the most inert creatures on Earth, but he has that mousing instinct in him. It's a practical skill, but I prefer not to know about it :) xx

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  6. Aaahhhhh the spirit of Christmas! ;-)

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  7. My cats never brought any presents home as far as I know. I did live alone so if they did, I have no idea what happened to them!

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  8. Hee hee - I have to deal with what my cats bring in as hubby is at work. Mice and Birds I can cope with - blinking great toads are quite another and i have been known trying to persuade one to hop out the door by prodding it with a book lol

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    1. Rather you than me !!
      I'm pretty grown up about most things, but mice & spiders make me squeamish !!

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