Sunday morning I lost the chance to sleep in for the first time in
years.  Normally I get up at 5:40 and the cats especially Smudge tries to
make it a little earlier but not too much so.  Don't know why she is in such
a rush as I won't be going into the kitchen to get Peepers' and Smudges'
breakfest until 6:30 or a little later.

   When the alarm woke me, I waited for them to mob me as they will do that
when they don't start just before the alarm goes off. (Does anybody have any
clue as to how they can be correct to within two minutes most days?)  Well
they didn't come storming in.  It was a nice morning so I went into the
living room to open the balcony door.  As I passed through the living room I
noted Peepers and Smudge seemed to be sitting face to face separated by less
than a foot amd she's growling at him.  I opened the door and went back to
check it out and nothing's changed, it wasn't an hallucination.  When I got
close enough I noticed that one of my shoes was between them and a very dead
mouse on the floor next to them.  I have no idea who the successful hunter
or huntress (ha, I've mentioned her lack of mousing skills in the past but
it could have happened this once).

   I went back into the bedroom praying that they didn't bring it to their
favorite stage (my bed).  I sat down at the computer to do my jigsaw puzzle
on the internet and to check my email.  After a while, I hear some very loud
growling working its way around a blockage in a cats mouth.  I knew what was
coming.  Quickly Smudge appears at the door to the bedroom growling like a
cat possessed keeping Peepers at bay (about 4 to 5 feet off).  She enters
the bedroom and sits in the bedroom door a couple of feet into the room and
Peepers isn't allowed any closer that the other side of the hall outside the
door.  She throws it about for a bit growling in a way that is either
demented or pleased with herself or both.

   About this time it is getting on towards 6:30 so I figure I will prepare
breakfast.  Smudge is a little slow to follow me out as the mouse is a great
toy but in the end is not food (or at least not hers).  She ends up
supervising the breakfast preparations but Peepers is nowhere to be seen.  I
knew what had happened, toys are always way more interesting than food to
him and real mice are even better than regular toys.

   I put the food on the floor and Smudge starts doing her starving wolf
imitation.  I go the bedroom and there is Peepers sitting facing the dead
mouse that he has so lovingly taken onto the great stage, otherwise known as
my bed.  He is not touching it just sitting in front of it being happy and
proud of it.  If he were a human his chest would have been thrown way out.
I go out the bathroom and get some toilet paper, go back into the bedroom
and pick up the mouse before Peepers can save this toy, and flush it away.
Boy did I get some nasty looks from Peepers.

   I picked the disappointed guy up and carried him out to breakfast and he
did eat a little but it took him the better part of an hour before he would
let me pet him again.  For Peepers a half hour approaches forever the better
part of an hour is unheard of till now.  A little playing got him feeling so
frisky later that it was hard to avoid stepping on him for most of the rest
of the morning.  He finally went for some serious sleep around 11:00 and
later in the day life seemed to return fully to normal.

   Now is there any point in getting mice and releasing them on a timer
just before my normal waking time to see if I can get another chance to
sleep in and this time I won't blow it.  Trouble is, do I really want to be
there sleeping when the mouse is brought onto the stage?

Larry Osborne