A Tilly first

So, picture the scene (and it's not a particularly attractive one), it's early morning, a damp and dismal start to the day and having already made it to my first caffeine and nicotine hit I'm two floors up attending to my ablutions when I hear from the garden faint panicking sounds coming from my mother

My father is way this week and concerned my mother might have had some mishap befall her I listen more intently..... and with small big panic rising realise she is talking in very concerned tones to Tilly. Always one to panic first and think later I race the two flights of stairs, three at a time convinced at the very least, that 'madam' has been injured and my mother maybe struggling to deal with whatever situation she has been faced with.......but what do I find?

My mother is indeed struggling with squirmy small cat, though somewhat carefully for she is mindful of Tillys claws and teeth, items she is not adversed to sinking into soft flesh. The reason for the cat/mother tussle rapidly becomes apparent as I near the furor....Tilly has her first ever catch (rubber bands aside), a still very much alive tiny, cute ball of fieldmouse, as yet not dispatched to the big mousehole in the sky.... and she is rather determined to hold onto it!

Whilst my mother may not be too adept at this procedure unfortunately for Tilly's pride I am and with one swift shake the tiny round mouse was rescued from feline jaws, Tilly was put unceremoniously indoors and off I went to investigate the state of her prey. All it seemed was well, there was no sign of injury and the little creature, as tiny as it was managed to bite me hard enough to draw blood! Mouse was put into the shrubbery and after a reasonable period of 'forgetting time' Tilly was released from her incarceration!

She has been spotted since almost continually 'parked' atop the compost heap monitoring intently the spot from where her quarry originated, in the apparent hope presumably, that it has been stupid enough to return and that her next attempt at proudly presenting her grandmother with a 'gift' won't be so unkindly thwarted!!!