Patches the Protector

Prior to buying our house I tried to get across to my beautiful bride that the location on the edge of the woods would result in an increased number of creepy crawlies finding their way into the house.  The primary example of that has been spiders, but the biggest examples have been things that have stayed in the yard and not come in the house, deer, turkeys, skunks, and what not.  The only real surprise was once finding a very small, very dead, garter snake in the cellar.  I assumed that our cat, Patches was responsible for the slithery little bastard's demise, but I had no way to prove it.

There was one instance a few months ago where my beautiful, beloved bride told me that Patches seemed to be chasing something in the living room.  Whatever it was dashed under the couch and the cat followed it at first but then after a couple of minutes sort of stalked around the couch as if waiting for something to come out.  Over the last couple of days she had been acting in a similar manner around our kitchen stove.

Last night I was sitting up in bed reading (I started reading the Thrawn trilogy again so that I can better actively campaign against it being used as the next three Star Wars flicks.  No way, folks.  No way) and Patches went absolutely nuts.  She's a cat.  She does that from time to time.  This time, however it was more than usual.  She was running around like crazy, jumping up and down, pouncing and slamming her paws on the floor.  I looked up over the top of my iPad and saw why.

A mouse.

Patches was standing at the base of one of our floor lamps.  On the other side of the base of the floor lamp was a little fuzzy brown mouse (as cute as can be) staring back at her.  Patches swatted, the mouse ran, Patches followed, the mouse reached the opposite wall, Patches flung herself at it, the mouse ducked and ran under the bed, Patches bounced off the wall and spun around and followed, the mouse broke for the closet, Patches caught up and swatted again, the mouse took the blow and skidded off balance, Patches pounced again, the mouse deftly dodged her and made for the closet again, Patches dove in after her but the mouse escaped in the clutter.  Patches spent the rest of the night (at least the parts I was awake for) stalking the front of the closet waiting for the invader to come out again.  At about 6:00am it did.  It broke for the bedroom door and Patches attacked once more.  We pretty much repeated the whole scene, only this time the mouse escaped by hiding under the dresser, which Patches could not fit beneath.

When we left this morning, Patches was still nobly guarding the bedroom, waiting for the hated interloper to once again show itself.  Patches the Brave.  Patches the Bold.  Patches the Protector, defender of our domain.

I gave her extra treats on the way out this morning.  Our feline hero deserves them, and more.

Just please, when you catch the little fuzzy bastard, don't rip it apart and leave it on anyone's bed, m'kay?  Thanks, kitty!