RAT!

This is Estorbo's Missus. Estorbo is in a decontamination chamber.

Is this a clue? is this where THE Flea came from?

I had just fallen asleep last night when I heard le chat making Mioawphghphghwahnnnnng noises, indicating a mouth full of something. I got up blearily, automatically reached for Herman Gilliomee's The Afrikaners (a nice fat book and makes a change from the Oxford English Reference Dictionary) and a piece of kitchen paper - my usual cockroach-squashing equipment for the times when the cat comes in from outside with urban prey - walked over to him to divest him of his plaything, only to see...eugh. A TAIL!

Even I cannot squash an animal with a tail. Though Vince has a very funny story which I may dig up, as it's relevant.

So I pick the cat up, praying he won't drop a rat on my foot, and hurl him outside, slamming the sliding door (yes, it's possible) shut. He growlsvsnuffily from outside. I go back to bed. I can hear gravel being thrown about on the terrace and I shut my bedroom door and block my ears. Later in the night I hear him beating on the glass door to be let back in.

This morning, no trace of the animal. The rat, I mean. Not even a tell-tail. So.