Something weird happened here on Saturday night. Something that has never ever happened before.

Since moving to Queensland nearly 5 years ago, I don’t think either Tim nor I have ever seen a mouse.

But while visiting friends for a BBQ, we saw our first one. They stomped it and fed it to the dog and we thought nothing more of it.

Until, while I was changing Jaxon for bed, I heard “Um, Boo” from Tim in Jaxon’s room.

And there, sitting on one of his spare ducks…was a mouse. It just sat and stared at him like it was totally normal for it to be sitting there ready to go to bed.

Since Dude is ALWAYS here for bed time I picked him up…pointed out the mouse and within 30 seconds Dude had it in his jaws and was taking it outside to play.

Once again, feeling safe in the knowledge that we had only ever seen two mice in Queensland…we thought nothing of it.

Until the next night. When, while I was reading in the silence of the night…I heard noises. Coming from our walk in wardrobe. Scratchy noises. Noises that once upon I time I was very familiar with (breeding mice does that to you)

So I got up, took Dude’s bell’s off and let him loose in the house for the first time since we moved here. Dude never gets to be out at night. He is always locked away where he can’t annoy us by climbing windows to get out, meowing to get back in or…sleeping on the bed. He is after all, a very large and bulky kind of cat.

Some background to this part of the story is that since moving from our old place to this place, Dude has been walking on very thin ice. I love having a cat. But Dude was pushing button’s and doing things that I was not willing to live with for overly long.

The first thing we noticed was that if he was inside he wanted to be outside. So we would let him out and then he would do this little about face thing and want to be inside. But he wouldn’t just meow, he would climb the doors and windows. Sometimes he would ask to be out at the front door, would walk around the house and then climb the back door to be let back in.

He had once been a very tranquil cat. And Jaxon’s friend. But when we moved here (and perhaps that we lost Oscar) he started attacking. He would strike without warning as you walked past him. And he would get you good. On Christmas Eve he jumped up from behind the couch and scratched Jaxon so close to his eye that he nearly didn’t get to see the night through.

But I persisted. Thinking that there must be a reason for the mood swings. We got him to the vet and cleared up a urinary tract infection and we installed a cat door for him to get away from Jaxon if he needed. This seems to have done the trick, though he still nibbles my toes occasionally.

But, back to the story. I just wanted to tell you how close to being shafted Dude was!

So the next morning we all woke up. Same old same old. Except for the blood bath all over the kitchen floor. Clearly Dude had caught his fair share of mice for the night.

Good Dude!

It continues still. There was two mice that Dude was teasing last night. They had climbed up the brick wall and were trapped so Dude just sat there. Biding his time. And he got them.

Then this morning, Tim found yet another mouse in our spare room, once again sitting there like nothing was out of place. But once I set Dude on him he didn’t stand a chance.

I don’t know what’s going on. This afternoon when Jaxon and I went out for a drive, a mouse jumped out from under our car and dashed as fast as he could back to the garage. And then when we got back Dude once again saved the day by catching and killing a mouse out near the BBQ.

I’ve never really been happy about cat’s without bell’s on. And Dude sure does sneak up on you when you can’t hear him coming. But until this mouse thing passes, Dude will have free range of the house at night, and no more bell’s!

Dude rocks!