Percy the Night Prowler

As evening approached, Percy the cat yawned a big cat yawn and turned his thoughts to the night's hunting. Like his much larger cousin, the male lion - one of the laziest animals in the world by the way - Percy enjoyed an easy life and had spent a relaxed day snoozing on top of the neighbour's shed, curled up contentedly in the sunshine. He had woken suddenly a couple of times to catch a bluebottle which had buzzed a little too closely, crunching on each of them with a quiet satisfaction. He knew he excelled in the art of bluebottle catching and enjoyed the sport as much as the eating. However he had to admit that the tinned chicken which his owner provided tasted a lot better and was usually the reason he stirred in the late afternoon, his paws picking up pace as he neared the cat flap.

Now, in the night time darkness, Percy tried, but not too hard, to capture a moth. But he was too slow off the mark, as it flew a little crazily towards the lighted window out of his reach. This half hearted attempt however helped to get him in the mood for hunting.

Generally he tried to avoid hedgehogs in his search for prey, having had his nose badly pricked when he had stuck it a little incautiously under a thick bush only to realize too late that he had invaded someone else's space. 'Nasty flea ridden animals' Percy had said to himself as he turned away with a smarting nose, forgetting that it was only the flea collar which he wore around his neck that kept a dense population of hungry hopping little blood suckers from inhabiting his own fur. 'That unpleasant creature was welcome to the rest of his half eaten slug' Percy thought, 'a disgusting choice of food, too chewy and only for the desperate.'

Goodness what was that? It looked like a large dog but Percy quickly noticed a handsome bushy tail and knew that Mr Fox was making his routine visit towards the rubbish bags. Percy wasn't looking for a fight so cleverly climbed up the pear tree to find a safe vantage point. Mr Fox sniffed around the rubbish bags but despite several energetic attempts to break into them, he failed to scavenge anything worth eating. Annoyed and by now very angry Mr Fox decorated one of the bags with something really foul smelling. 'Oh,' thought Percy, 'there's no way I am going to try my luck there. Even if there was a nice tuna or sardine tin to lick I really wouldn't fancy it now.'

Now, a nice little mouse would be good. Great fun to tease and play with it for a while. Was that one over there? Percy crouched down low and stayed quite still watching the space between two plants very closely. There it was again. Slowly Percy crept forward, edged himself into jumping position, fixed his eyes on the same spot, saw a movement and pounced. Success! He would take the mouse to his young owner in the morning. She usually seemed pleased with these little presents, but sometimes something in her voice made him less sure, or maybe it was the way she turned her face slightly or seemed to brace herself and waited before picking it up. Anyway one night time catch was enough and he was feeling a bit tired again now. His thoughts returned to next door's shed roof and the nice long snooze he would have and most of all to breakfast.

FOOTNOTE

Percy is only doing what comes naturally, so do not think too unkindly of him. We will tell you in a later edition of this webpage what Percy's owner did to protect some of the little creatures which he loves to hunt.