It was a peaceful evening in the House of Chaos, as Autumn evenings are sometimes wont to be: not chilly enough to warrant firing up the central heating system yet cool enough to start thinking about pullovers and a nice warm cuppa of something invigorating or at least hot. The Mistress, covered with a fleece plaid, walked towards the Kitchen of Chaos in order to get herself some tea when she spotted little Hrimnir surreptitiously devouring something. “Oh, good, he’s on a sausage…” thought the Mistress dreamily. And then she woke up: “But I haven’t been baking sausages this week. Or the week before ! What the *** ?! HRIMNIR !!!”
The culprit just sat there, obviously enjoying the consumption of his prize, yet alert for any interruptions – like other feline denizens snatching it away from him, or the Mistress getting upset about the origins of it. And thus, when he looked up at me, I could see his little furry face radiating the kind of injured innocence any kid caught in the act is famous for. It now depended on me to find out what kind of act he actually committed, but I was already sure and certain he hadn’t been pilfering our waste bin. He must have been raiding at the neighbours’. But who ? Or did they maybe give it to him ?
In this town we use plastic sacs for our waste, hideously expensive but mandatory sacks to boot, that tear easily and are quite thin. No wonder the neighbourhood felines are perfectly capable of smelling out the contents. And it is too easy even for a kitten to scratch said sack open and swipe the contents. It is rare but not unheard of to enter your garden in the morning and behold the amusing sight of your neighbour’s garden filled with snarfing cats and what must have been the contents of a waste-sack strewn out like a buffet all around them. It is only fortunate that I seldom put my waste-sacks in the Garden for safekeeping until Trash-Day, and even more fortunate that I see carefully to the filling of said sacks so that the nobbly felines won’t have an easy clue as to the contents and wouldn’t be tempted to go and find out. The Garden of Chaos stays clean, thank you very much !
Yet some neighbours have given in to the inevitable, or perhaps are not too ashamed to show a hitherto unsuspected streak of animal-loving, and put out leftovers on plates for the cats to purloin. It can be all kinds of leftovers, but mostly it’s meat. The cats don’t mind anyway, as long as it’s edible. Since our neighbours are a diverse mix of ethnic origins you could say our feline overlords have a rather extensive choice there.
A third possibility came up in my mind but I discarded it a moment later: since it is Autumn, and already a bit chilly, the chance that Hrimnir might have been sneaking through an open window or door in order to snatch the coveted morsel can be ruled out, so that leaves only waste or offer.
Hrimnir was being creative with his food, trying to eat from both sides at the same time, and even playing a bit with it. I hurriedly took out the camera because previous experience has taught me that funny things can happen in these cases. And I was not disappointed ! Hrimnir, in his eagerness to gobble the treat, didn’t watch out how his tiny claws caught into the meat and he suddenly found himself hooked for sure. Which next resulted into what I fondly prefer to call the “Claw-Shimmy”: he furiously tried to shake the suddenly offending morsel off his paw and only managed to look incredibly ridiculous. His frantic shaking did finally pay off though and the piece of sausage fell of. Hrimnir then set to immediately devouring the remains of the sausage with a vengeance. There ! That will teach you to make the Mistress laugh at me !
Poor little Hrimmikins, I did indeed laugh at the sight of that kitten fighting a sausage. But I do wonder what he will come home with next. So far he has brought us 2 blackbirds, a field mouse, a piece of cooked chicken, a chicken throat, some spare ribs and a frog. He’s barely 6 months old, and such a maven pilferer already !
Of course, that’s nothing compared to the partridge Loup-Garou once managed to catch and bring in, or for that matter, the chipmunk and the rabbit that fell prey to the first Pinnoccio, who ruled the House of Chaos with august majesty more than 20 years ago. But it’s a promising start.
Picture below:
Need I say more ? Hrimnir confronted with a sticky situation. And doing the Claw-Shimmy.
It’s Sunday again and that means we can all visit the Carnival of the Cats, hosted by Grace and Kittens. Will we see real clowns there ?
We are going to take part in the Catster competition and Hrimnir has been allowed to be the first to enter. Will you vote for him ? Just click on this :
House of Chaos 