All in a mouse's night

I can always tell when our cats have cornered a mouse.

They sit with a fixed expression, staring into a corner or crevice, waiting for the luckless rodent to forget that it is being stalked and stick its whiskers out into the light. Last night both Daisy and Doris had their eyes on the corner where the bin lives, so I pulled it out and looked to see what was behind it.

Nothing there, I thought, but the cats weren’t giving up. I lifted the bin up to look underneath – still no sign – but then I realised that Mr Mousie had wriggled into the mechanism where the foot pedal of the bin operates the lid. I took the bin outside and managed to free the creature so it could escape into the long grass.

Daisy still sat looking into the corner for a good hour afterwards, just in case another mouse materialised …