Chickens, Mice, Cats and Eglus

On a scale of one to super-excited, I’m probably a nine this morning. Why? I finally got the green light from the Royal Bank of Mr Swift to order my Eglu and chickens for the garden. A bit of deliberating over the eglu’s colour, but we finally went for my favourite - purple. The Eglu will arrive with two chickens, a Miss Pepperpot (Margot) and a gingernut ranger (Jerry).

Just need to work out how to break this news to the cats. I’m guessing Max will hide under the bed until at least Christmas, whilst Eli will retreat to his ‘situation room’ (the study) to plan his campaign of attack. Mr Swift and i fully expect him to lose an eye within the first week. On the plus side, Ron the goldfish might get a couple of weeks respite from the feline ‘shock and awe’ attacks.

On a slightly more unpleasant note i think we’re reached that time of year when i have to face my arch-nemesis , the field mouse. One disadvantage of living in a Victorian house next door to a gigantic field is as soon as the nights take a turn for the worse, said mice try and break into my home.

The first autumn we were here I was watching The X-Factor (in my defence there was nothing else on at the time and it was before I owned all seven seasons of The West Wing) and a mouse brazenly scampered out from under the sofa and sat eyeballing me from the middle of the room. The next day i laid out numerous humane traps and caught four of them. Mr Swift was dispatched to release them in the local park. I may hate them but i understand their house invasion isn’t an act of war, but a necessity; hence they get to keep their lives.

Having the cats around has reduced the numbers significantly but not removed the threat entirely. Last Christmas Eve I was sat in bed reading ‘A Christmas Carol’ (a long-standing tradition of mine) when Max came running into the room with a live mouse in his mouth. I think I’d rather have had a visit from Marley’s ghost.

So, imagine my sinking heart when Max spent the whole of last night in the kitchen, sat in the darkness peering underneath the fridge. If they are not in the house already then I give them week. Sigh, time for the humane traps and peanut butter to make a guest appearance.