Humiliation

I was cooking dinner, reached the appropriate point to heat up the grill for the pork chops, turned the BBQ on, opened up the lid, and...

There was a mouse on the hotplate. Ten centimetre blob, kind of browny-grey, pointy towards the front, with a long tail. And legs, working quicksmart, since I'd turned on the gas and heat before opening the lid. A mouse.

I'm rather ashamed to admit it, but I screamed. An hasty "eek" kind of thing, but with a full-timbred throaty "ah!" in it.

How humiliating.

At least I'm moderately sure now that our cats really have been mousing for us rather than just ranging far and wide to bring them back on their catch and release program, so they can live underneath the fridge and be batted at at leisure.

Unless, of course, they've just brought us back a breeding pair. What a cheerful thought.

Edit: In other news, the chops were excellent.