Warm Welcome?

Beans' M&D arrive for their annual summer stay. We all went out for dinner and when Beans and I got home, we were greeted by chatty cats and Miss Orange sitting proudly on her carpet, presenting her gift:



Our little hunter upheld tradition. Just as she seems to do whenever M&D come to town, she celebrates their arrival by killing something. Sweet, no?


For the next week, she didn't come up to bed with us, spending her nights stalking near the new plumbing in the mid-reno kitchen. Did I mention that once she kills, she gets a serious case of bloodlust and stays in hunt mode for days, and days, and days until she kills again?

Last night, Beans let the cats out before he left the house to pick me up from a girls' night out. The pick up took a bit longer than expected as he and the other hubby on chauffeur duty were coaxed into joining us for desserts and drinks. By the time we got home after 11pm, the kittens had been out in yard, in the dark and unsupervised for a good hour plus. I came up the walk and noted odd behaviour in our Orange one. She was bouncing around the grass, a tell tale sign that something was in her clutches.

Yup, exactly one week after her first kill of the 2010 summer season, she'd nailed another mouse in the yard. Poor thing wasn't quite dead when we got home. She was letting it go and then pouncing on it when it was foolish enough to try to escape. She'd smack a paw down on it and it would squeak like a cat toy. Gruesome, I know.

On the upside, we don't have mice in the house. Sure, she catches one (in her grandparents' honour - we're convinced of this) every now and again. But I guarantee they've just crossed the threshold and haven't had time to settle in before she's on the case. And if the unfortunates happen to come with a family, she'll take them all down, one per day, until they're all gone.

I guess the one she caught last week was a bachelor, hence the week-long interlude between kills.