I have been aware that we have rodents in part of the house. Old house, empty too long before we came. I dared not use poison because of the critters.

Last week, I had to decide to let the dogs sleep in a rather fine newish wooden shed; renamed the annex...Hated doing it, but collie is getting very cranky in her old age and barking half the night for no reason; barking is her hobby.. Sleep deprivation was starting to do strange things to me...It was either the dogs or me move to the shed.

They love it; a bale of hay and a good feed.

So now the cats have the run of the whole house all night long.. collie also hates the cats so they live upstairs.

Both cats ( litter mates) are keen hunters. this morning I found a dead rodent on the kitchen floor. Great! Soon the rest of them will be racing down the lane waving a white flag..NB not about to ID the rodent either. Maybe a fat mouse, or a small rat.

They used to bring their dead prey into my bed but we sorted that...

One down....

Brilliant....well done those cats.

Better than my two...who just loll about and dribble on the sofa...not counting the odd pile of cat sick left in the middle of the floor sometimes in the mornings.

Oh yukkk... I get that too sometimes when someone they have eaten disagrees with them.. usually a small heap of feathers in it.

Just heard a pounce from downstairs! I once had a young cat in an old house where there was a rat in the roof that came in and stole the cat food. One dark night around 2 am, heard crashes and screams... carefully finally went into the room, to find the cat shaking and trembling and a huge dead rat on the floor.. blood all over. Nothing had ever fought back before..Out with the bleach...Cat got taken to bed with me that night..

Aww, poor cat. At least he killed it. Better than my friends cat who brought a large rat in the house and proceeded to let it go right in front of her 6' 7" hunk of a boyfriend.. He promptly screamed, jumped onto the coffee table and wouldn't come down until she got rid of the rat!!

For the laughter, thank you.. The bigger they are, the harder they fall..Mind you, that is a pretty natural reaction and a healthy one. A friend here actually started to release a rat from a trap and got bitten.

Another mouse down... When I took the frying pan - rarely used- out of the oven, it was very clean, apart from the mouse droppings. Wee dog had been driving me crazy THERE IS A MOUSE IN THE OVEN style...Bought 2 traps, set them last night and one dead mouse, lying on its back well away from the trap.

Wee dog is part Jack Russell, part Basset, both breeds ratters. Yesterday afternoon she transferred her attentions to the old stone shed attached to the house. Digging, barking, yelping, watching...

Big cat is now on rat duty too helped by a feral we fed all last winter. Such is rural life. I refuse to use poison and the rat traps are too stiff for me to set.