A bit of excitement this morning.

[Elkhound]

Rupert caught and killed a MOUSE!  He presented it to me.  Good kitty! 

[Evie]

VERY good kitty!  And better you than me....   

[DesertRose]

Good kitty indeed.  You won't have to worry about rodents around your place with Rupert on patrol. 

[Laurna]

Good Rupurt, bringing daddy a gift, and showing you how much he cares.

I guess this makes him a grown up Kitty cat.

[Elkhound]

Actually, he killed his first mouse at about 5 months old.  But yes, he turned one year old last month.  He's not a kitten any more; he's most certainly a full-fledged CAT!

Silly mouse!  He should have smelled the cat and decided that this house wasn't for him.

[Aerlys]

Oh, the good kind of excitement.

So you received the High Badge of Honor from Rupert. That's great! What a good kitty. My cat used to drown them in his water dish and leave them there.

[AnnieUK]

LOL, Aerlys! My girl kitty used to find DD's hair elastics wherever she had dropped them and put them in the water bowl.

"Mum! I can't find a hair band!"
"Have you tried the cat's dish?"

Girl kitty has brought back birds and mice and also a bar of chocolate. She loves chocolate, but we have no idea where she scrounged it from. Boy kitty can manage the occasional fly or leaf. Maybe a worm, if he's feeling particularly adventurous.

[Elkhound]

I think there may be a mouse he can hear or smell but can't get to.  He's all wound up about something.

[DesertRose]

That, or he hears/sees the house sprites.  You know, the ones that hide your keys from you and taunt the cat(s) by their very presence. 

[Evie]

Gigi is our house sprite.  We have to be careful about leaving small or furry/fuzzy items out where she can reach them, because they'll turn out in a completely different part of the house.  Once I even caught her dragging a pair of my daughter's trousers down the hallway, although once she spotted me watching her, she dropped them and tried to saunter away nonchalantly as if she had no idea how they got there.  Luke has no interest in relocating things, just sitting on them, but Gigi is a little kleptomaniac.

[DesertRose]

LOL, Evie.

The house sprite thing is an old inside joke from when I lived with some friends.  It explains how keys (or whatever) got somewhere you don't recall leaving them, and it explains the random mad running about and the random staring into what appears to be empty space that cats do.

[Shiral]

Greeblings are the name for those invisible mischievous  sprites.  Cats  nobly do their best to protect us, but they're seriously outnumbered. Dmitri informs me that I get greebling infestations every now and then. That must be why I found one of my favorite vases shattered on the living room floor when I got home last night.

"Honest it was the greeblings! I tried to save it but it was too late." Well, that's Dmitri's  story, and he's sticking to it, the little wretch!
Melissa

[Aerlys]

In our house we have gremlins.

And munchkins -- but they blame everything on the gremlins.

Mindy, the little doggy, likes to hoard little treasures in her kennel: crayons, marker lids, doll shoes, DD's figurines... Her favorite plaything is a little furry mouse that is actually a cat toy. She carries it around with her. Still, I can't blame her for the cups of coffee, eyeglasses, socks, and car keys that disappear around here.

Blasted gremlins!

[Elkhound]

What about Borrowers?

[Elkhound]

I think the other mouse must be behind the refrigerator.  At least Rupert seems to be very interested in that part of the kitchen, and I've caught him on the floor with his nose pressed up against the gap between the refrigerator and the counter.