Today's city cats know there just aren't as many mice to go around.
Humans have invented traps and "mousticides" which keep the fun little critters at bay.  And when you catch one in the field and bring it home
all you get is a lecture on cleanliness.

Thus, mousing today lacks the thrill of the hunt.  After all, if you can't
bring it back to thrill the owners, what good is it?  To catch it just to let it go? To eat it?  Please.

Our tastes have elevated to where even the cheapest tin of cat food is
better than a fresh mouse.  If mouse tasted so good to us cats how
come they don't make Mouse flavored cat food?

Humans think we are born to hunt mice, that we are mouse munching machines. Lately the Big Owner has been at war with a mouse that has been
conducting night raids under the kitchen sink.

So what did the Big Owner do?  Today he thought he had the mouse cornered.  He summoned ME to finish the job.  He picked me up and
dropped me down in front of the mouse hole.  Time for a reality check:

For years the Big Owner's wife screamed every time I brought a mouse home
from the field.  The kids wrinkled their faces in disgust and the Big
Owner would throw away my gift.  Now they want me to sit here and
do the very thing that disgusts them?  Oh, well, they're only human.
But this is hardly sporting.   Sitting in front of a mouse hole.  Ho-
hum.

I guess if I wait long enough the mouse will have to show its
face.  Paying rapt attention to a small hole in the wall is not easy
work.  Have YOU tried it?  So I put my head down for a minute.  I just laid
there.  Fact is, after 10 minutes I fell asleep.  Next thing I remember the
Big Owner was lifting me out from under the sink mumbling something to
himself.

What did he expect?  The Terminator?  Well, I *won't* be
back.   My first stop was in front of a bowl of cat food.   It doesn't run
and hide like a mouse.

It was a good day.

written by Mark Mason:  get your monthly diary at
                 [email protected]          Thanks Mark for permission