The Vigil

I made a rookie error last night gentle reader and I could kick myself. I caught a mouse (with ease) and raced onto my boat to torment it further. I was in the mood for a good bit of mouse teasing and seeing as Ange was out for the evening I knew I could do it without her berating me. The lummox was in but that was no problem. He was sat listening to music and was therefore distracted. I took the mouse into the darkest part of the boat I could find, outside the bathroom. And there I sat for a while knocking it about and then letting it think that it was safe before savaging it again. This went on for a good few minutes but then the lummox got off the couch to change the cd and I turned away from the mouse to see what was happening. The rodent seized his chance and fled for his life, darting behind the cd case.

“Bugger!” I thought, and I was very annoyed with myself. Of course I did all I could to retrieve the beastly thing without the lummox noticing but there were some thin pieces of wood propped up against the cd case and I accidentally knocked some of them over which made quite a clatter and thus alerted the lummox. He leapt off the couch and came to see what was happening. Of course when I say leapt I mean that he shambled to his feet with considerable effort. I was still trying to curl my paw around the back of the case to try and reach the mouse and he obviously realised what was happening. He demanded to know what I was doing but I ignored him and continued to try and extract my quarry. Lummoxy fetched a torch and had a look behind the case but he couldn’t see the mouse and he switched it off again and returned to the couch. There was nothing else for it. I was going to have to sit and watch and wait for that mouse to come out.

And that’s what I did. For a good long time I held a vigil, staring at the gap where the mouse had gone in waiting for him to show his face again. But alas there was neither hide nor hair of him to be seen. And like any cat worthy of the name I kept up my vigil for many hours. Ange eventually came home and they both went to bed. But not me. Oh no, I remained at my post, despite Ange telling me yet again that I was naughty. She was wasting her breath gentle reader, wasting her breath as it fell on deaf ears. I was concentrating too much on the job in paw. Eventually, I changed tack and went into the bedroom in the small hours to try and lull the mouse into a false sense of security. And it worked! He came creeping out at about four in the morning and I heard him. I shot off the bed (waking the lummox up in the process, hee hee!) and tore into the living room and almost had him but he just managed to get under one of the armchairs a split-second before I got my claws into him.

That meant that my vigil continued, well at least for another hour until the humans got up when I thought it best to stop before Ange started on me again. Anyone would think she was some kind of mouse protection activist the way she carries on. And besides, I know the way of mice. I knew that all I had to do was wait until later in the day when those two weren’t about and so with a flick of my fine tail I went to bed for a few hours. I knew also that there was no way the mouse could get off the boat and so I would pounce on him at some point in the near future. Well, that’s my plan at any rate. It may not happen. He may well expire from the mauling I gave him but so be it. A cat’s got to do what a cat’s got to do. But I’m pleased with myself for keeping up such a vigil long into the night. Yes, rather pleased with myself.

PPP x