Thursday 22 February 2007
Cat and Mouse
Well I told you didn't I that these things could take a life of their own, and so it is today...Instead of my first musing being on the Times it's on Berry the cat. Berry, a several years old Tom has just caught his second mouse in two and half years living with us. The first we found dead on Evie's bed but today's was very much alive and HE JUST PLAYED WITH IT!!! Then when it hid under the washing machine he just waited patiently for an hour until it ventured out again. Alas it was no Tom and Jerry outcome for the puir wee crittur, but rather loss of blood and a gradually feeling of the inevitable. On several occasions it played possum in the middle of the floor, as if hoping that Berry would think it gone away and abandon the chase. But a gentle pat destroyed such vain hopes. After an hour of such cavortings I was faced with a dilemma - moral? ethical? I know not. I watch a lot of nature programmes and the word is non-interventional. Let Nature, natural behaviour take its course. Should therefore I let Berry have his pleasure until the mouse expired and become an ex-mouse or should I take steps to put it out of its misery? To intervene or not to not to intervene what would you have done?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I'm afraid that I would have been (and, in fact, where my Sylvester is concerned, have been) a complete spoilsport, and retrieved the aforementioned mouse...
...mostly because if it succeeds in hiding from the cat it will rot quietly in a corner and stink out the flat...
...but also to put the mouse out of its misery!!
In fact so did I...and it took Berry the best part of 24 hours to recover from the lack of 'closure' to his fun. I remember female cats of my childhood having the same air about them when my mother drowned their kittens.
Post a Comment