A Dog, a Cat, and a Mouse

Last week our animals caused us some undue stress and a modicum of irony.  

The cat wants to go outside at night and prowl.  We let her so we don't have to listen to her ask all night.  Last week the cat went out to play, the house was locked up, the dog securely in the backyard, and we went to bed.  At 6:00 AM Mr. Taylor got up to exercise.  He found the dog curled up on the front porch looking guilty.  The cat meandered in without saying a word.

Did you catch that?  The cat didn't say a word.  When the cat is out all night, she spends the first 15 minutes back home telling you ALL about it.  She has so much to say.  While Mr. Taylor had a discussion with the dog, the cat played on the kitchen floor.  Why was Mr. Taylor talking to the dog like she's a sentient being?  I don't know.  More alarming, what was the cat playing with?

She'd brought home a present.  A mostly dead mouse.  So mostly dead that Mr. Taylor had no problem picking it up by the tail and taking it outside while he looked at the hole the dog must have dug under the fence.  He threw the mouse in the grass away from the house and found the hole under the fence.  

Sunday morning we had a repeat performance with some variation.  Dog sitting on the front porch looking VERY guilty, sitting with an open bag of garbage strewn from our porch to the backyard of our neighbor's house.  She'd also brought home a coat. Fortunately, she hadn't chewed up the coat.

Mr. Taylor cleaned up the mess, took back the coat, apologized to the neighbor, and came home to find the extra gift the dog brought home.

This time the mouse was definitely dead.