Clever Flad!

One thing about Flad is, he hasn't got a real meow. Instead, he goes 'eek'. The only time he produces any volume is when he's caught something. Then, the yowl of doom echoes around the house, an eerie, "Yeeeow!", roughly translated as, "Aren't I a clever cat?"

One thing he never does is meow outside doors. Instead, he sits and waits. So when I was in the bathroom this morning and heard repeated 'eeks' coming from the other side of the door, I knew something must be up. I was in there quite a long time (don't ask) and when I emerged, he rushed off towards the kitchen in a flurry of impatience, glancing over his shoulder to make sure I was following.

He led me straight to his food cupboard in the corner. 'Oh,' thought I. 'He's trying to convince me he hasn't already been fed by Mr Grumpy'. I decided to give him a few extra biscuits, opened the cupboard and found out the reason for his agitation. A mouse had got into the cupboard from the back somewhere and had bitten a hole in the packet of cat biscuits. Chewed paper was everywhere.

Flad, unlike the neighbours' cat, has never learned to open doors. You can just imagine the torment he must have suffered in the night, hearing the pesky rodent scuffling around and being unable to get at it. We've cleaned out the cupboard, we've looked in the cupboard next to it, but no sign of Mousy. I hope that next time it turns up it will be in Flad's mouth. Perhaps I shouldn't have given him that extra sachet of cat food as a reward...