A Wild Night


“Come kitty, kitty.”
“Oh leave her alone, Stella. If she wants to sleep on the floor, that’s up to her.”
“But she usually sleeps on the bed. Maybe she wants to play.”
“Well it’s way after midnight and I don’t, so will you switch off the damned light and ignore her?”

There was a click and a deep sigh followed by some snoring - then a scuffle. Stella snorted and turned over.

“What is that kitten up to now?” said Daryl raising himself on one elbow and peering into the dark. “I’m going to boot her out.”
“Aw, she’s only a kitten. She’s probably playing with her toys.”
“Why doesn’t she go into the wardrobe and hide like she used to?”
“I locked her out of there.”
“Why?”
“Dead crow. I had to throw out a good pair of perfectly good shoes.”
“I told you we didn’t need a cat.”
“But she’s so cute, Daryl. She’ll settle, you’ll see. Plea-ease.”
Daryl always gave in to that wheedling tone.

The bed frame creaked and there was another sigh and a bit more snoring. The cat had become very silent. The warm dark was like a cocoon. Country scents of a northern summer wafted in through the open window and sleep drifted towards peaceful dreams of fresh lemonade and cricket and civilized cream teas on chamomile lawns.

A sudden visceral EEEEE EEEEE EEEEK split the air.
Hearts pounded. Bodies sat up. Lights went on.

“What the…blazes?” said Daryl.
“What on Earth was that?” asked Stella clutching her hands to her pounding chest.
“I’m going to look,” Daryl said with manly determination. “Will you come with me?”
“Of course,” said Stella. “You first.”
Daryl put his feet on the floor and stood up. “Good God, would you look at this?”
“What?”
“Round my side. Look.”

A rabbit lay dead on the carpet - a rabbit bigger than the kitten itself - a buck rabbit wide-eyed with terror and over it stood their fluffy six month old kitten, looking as pleased with herself as any lion that had just brought down a wildebeest.
“That’s it,” said Daryl. He picked up the kitten, went downstairs and shoved her out the front door.
Her dismay at being ousted was genuine.
“What about the rabbit?” asked Stella.
Daryl tutted and dropped it out the open window.

“How a rabbit got upstairs is what I can’t understand,” said Stella getting back into bed. “She can’t have carried it – it was bigger than she is.”

“You wanted to live in the country and you wanted a cat, Stella. Welcome to the natural world.”

The cat was out, the rabbit, gone - now for sleep.

THUD. Thud…thud. Thud…th-thud.

“WHAT NOW?” Daryl flung the bedclothes back in fury at this next interruption.
“It’s outside.”
“I KNOW IT’S OUTSIDE.”
“Well there’s no need to shout…”

CAW…CAW…Th-thud. CAW…Th-thud…thud. CAW.

Daryl looked out the window. “It’s crows eating the eyes out of the bloody rabbit. It’s landed on the bay window roof.”
“Can’t you get it off there?”
“Of course, yes. I’ll just go out in my pyjamas, get the ladder out of the shed, get the rabbit off the roof and give it a decent Christian burial while I’m at it shall I?”
“Okay, no need to be sarcky!”
“Do you think we could get some sleep now, eh?”

“Oh Daryl, it’s getting light already…listen…the dawn chorus.”
“Oh, joy!”