When We Were Kittens. David Greagg

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      8

      The mice must have gone away because we can't hear them anymore.

      9

      Nope. They just moved. Now they've gone behind the Hot Place where our Humans do things to their food. According to Belladonna it's called a stove. And she should know, because she sits there staring at it - a lot. And every now and again there is a rustling noise.

      Shadow keeps asking, What is it? Can you see anything there?

      And Belladonna says, SHUSH! If you want to catch mice you have to be very patient. And very quiet. You are currently neither. You should learn both.

      10

      Belladonna caught another mouse today. She was so quick we never even saw it. But one moment there was nothing there and the next there's a small dead mouse in the middle of the floor. She let Shadow play with it.

      I asked Belladonna if our humans minded her killing mice and she said, No they didn't. The important thing is not to play with them first. It's cruel and you shouldn't do it.

      Have you told her? I asked.

      Yes, but she pays no attention, Belladonna said. We're cats, and catching mice is one of the things we do. But no cruelty. That's why Man let the mouse go when your rude sister chased it all over the bathroom. What the humans are telling us is that mice are a pest and if you let them into your home they'll keep on nibbling until they've eaten the whole house. So we deal with them. But we don't terrify them out of their tiny wits first. You've seen what I do. You wait and wait and wait until they can't get away and you pounce. One whack to the side of their head and they go wherever mice go to afterwards.

      This must have been the longest speech Belladonna had ever made to either of us, and I sat there looking at her and taking it all in.

      Is this part of being a Good Cat? I asked.

      Yes, she said. You can get away with a lot if you play nicely. Tormenting small frightened animals isn't being a Good Cat; it's being a Bad Cat and you both know that. You chase birds, sometimes, don't you Dougal?

      I washed myself. It's true, I said. I can't help myself sometimes. But I let them go.

      Belladonna frowned at me. If you scare birds enough they sometimes stop working and just die of fright, she said. You need to stop doing it because there are a lot of birds in our yard, and they talk to each other all the time. You must have seen the big black crows out there. Yes, I said. They're very big and their beaks look very sharp and they're always saying AAARK!

      Belladonna scratched under her chin and then watched Shadow play with the dead mouse for a while before returning to our conversation. Yes, she said. Crows are very intelligent. They say they come here for food and water, but they say other things too. I heard them talking about Man once. It seems that Man saved one of them and took him off to get better somewhere. He had a broken wing and the other humans made it all better and then let him go. So they all say that Man is a Friend of Crows. Now what do you think might happen if you or your sister caught a crow? How would that look?

      It didn't sound good so I imagine it wouldn't look much better. OK, I said, that would be very bad. I don't know if my sister ever listens to us when we tell her not to do stuff, but I'll mention it.

      Mention what? asked Shadow, who was suddenly tired of her dead mouse.

      That you should not go chasing crows, said Belladonna sternly.

      Who me? Of course not! my sister said. What are crows?

      The big black birds that say AAAARRK, I explained. Shadow washed her paws thoughtfully. I don't go anywhere near them, she admitted. They're a bit scary with those beaks that could go straight through you.

      Just then there was a big AAAARK from the back yard. Shadow looked panicky. Are they coming after us?

      Yes they are, answered Belladonna. And they eat naughty kittens like you, so behave yourself! Shadow didn't say anything after that, but stalked out the front to be somewhere the crows weren't.

      Belladonna and I looked at the dead mouse. It looked a bit sad and I suddenly felt sorry for it. What shall we do with it? I asked her. We shouldn't just leave it there. Man will deal with it, she said. It's in The Rules. Then she went back to sleep so I left the room. I didn't feel comfortable with the poor little thing lying in the middle of the floor, but when I went back into the Food Room later on someone had taken it away, so I guess Belladonna was right. We catch the mice, the humans tidy them up and that way they know that we've been Good Cats. It makes sense.

      11

      There is a new Cat Castle out the front on the wooden bit. It's absolutely huge and it's got all these boxes underneath a big plastic thing. There are lots of places to hide in there and I love playing inside it, and then sitting on top of it. The plastic crinkles just like the Cat Castle did when we were kittens and before it shrank so much that I can only fit my head in it now. So now I have a new, proper-sized one and I can hide in there and play Ambush with my sister.

      12

      No mice at all today. Belladonna has gone back to sleeping on one of the chairs for most of the day. I don't know why she knows so much about what happens here because she seems to spend most of her life asleep. Maybe the Crows talk to her in her dreams.

      It rained a lot today so we stayed inside.

      13

      It keeps raining. I am on top of the big Cat Castle outside, just thinking. Man keeps coming out to see if I want to come in but I don't seem to. I don't know what I want, actually. I think I want the rain to stop. Man went out and had fun while we stared at the rain.

      When he came home again he fed us and played with his Picture Box until I cried outside his window to tell him it had stopped raining. He took us for our walk and then he gave me the Plastic Tube Of Happy. *PUUURRR!*

      14

      It finally stopped raining today so we had a long walk through the Huge Buildings. I think my sister enjoys it more than I do. It's scary and exciting at the same time.

      There were a lot of birds there and they sounded scared too, so I didn't go near them and neither did my sister. Maybe she was thinking about the crows and their big pointy beaks.

      15

      We went around the Other Walk tonight and got barked at! But we weren't really scared because we had Man with us and the dogs were all locked up in their houses.

      16

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