He caught a mouse...

...I had a bad night last night with this sheared off tooth which cannot be seen to until next Tuesday.

I ended up rooting out some clove oil for it. Because by this time another tooth was hurting in equal sympathy on the other side of my mouth. Applied the clove oil to both teeth. Stung my whole mouth.

It was also 24C in my bungalow bedroom, and no chance of sleep. So I put the upright fan on (useless on its own), but I put my clothes maiden round it, and a dripping wet towel in front. My very own swamp cooler.

I managed a few hours sleep. But I was really waiting for the chemist to open at 9 am, because by this time I realised that the date on the clove oil was 2007...I'd probably bought it about 15 years ago.

So I sat on the thatched swing in the end. And Popeye went hunting for early morning mice. He caught one, came to show me. It was alive, so I automatically reached out, but Popeye said a firm no, and got out of reach, and swallowed it whole, alive, this wriggling tail out of his mouth, and then that was gone too...

I have seen birds swallow fish alive and whole, but not this, a mouse by a cat. And a cat who is 27 years old...

I don't have any sympathy, simply because I was invaded by mice in the kitchen for months. I didn't know initially, until the plastic water pipe leading to the washing machine sprayed fountains and flooded my kitchen. Then I found fridge and freezer electric cables chewed, then food, and tons more. It cost me a fortune in money, and time and energy which I did not have.

I was even trying to use humane traps so I could release them away from the house. I was trying to be kind. But they declined the peanut butter I put in to entice them.

However, the last straw was when they rolled the lidded peanut butter jar over to where they had been coming in the kitchen (there were various holes in wood where pipes came in, but I didn't have the energy or dexterity to rip units apart. But by rolling that peanut butter jar over to their entry point, which had me gobsmacked when I walked in the kitchen that morning, they gave away their entry point.

The mice were just constantly coming into the kitchen through their easy access point. I did see Popeye catch one mouse, but generally it was easy to evade a cat in that compact environment.

So, I hadn't minded, but it was hard work, just taking the wood out round there, and found 3 entries in the brick work. I cemented all their entries all up.

And had to clean the whole kitchen, throw out loads food they had sampled by biting through plastic, and get stuff repaired. Put stuff in glass containers and jars and so on, not cheap to buy.

So, 9am arrived this morning. I went to chemist, got a new in date clove oil (and some home dental repair stuff, but I have never found that stuff successful), came home and tried the new clove oil. It was foul, horrible. It works, but blinking horrible.

I think there must be different qualities of clove oil, like there are other essential oils.

I sit on my thatched swing, and Popeye comes along with another mouse with a tail wriggling In his mouth....