Everyone wants to escape sometimes

I am getting bored with this now, the snow is still here and it looks as if it intends to stay. My son's school was closed and my daughter was unable to drive to Leicester to get to university, so we had the pleasure of their company at home. My son wandered around with an air of disapproval and he resisted all my efforts to encourage him to do something useful. My daughter was less visible but it was clear that our weekday routine was getting in the way of her plans for the day

Robbie was up and ready for work very early this morning, he wanted to get all his work done so that he could finish early and go out this afternoon. The snow has kept him away from the railways for a few days and it doesn't take long for him to get withdrawal symptoms. So this afternoon I braved the weather and the roads to drive Robbie to the station. The main roads were not too bad but if you strayed on to the very icy side roads you had to take your life in your hands.  

I only had an hour of 'peace' without Robbie, then I had to go to work, but it least it gave my son and daughter a chance to watch television and take possession of the lounge for a few hours. Robbie returned late but happy, the train for his return journey was rather special (according to Robbie) so he had plenty to tell me about his afternoon. I'd been worried about him falling over in the snow, but thankfully he managed to stay upright thanks to his Dr Martens shoes.

Catastrophe!

Robbie will be returning to work tired (as promised) and wounded. I was only indirectly responsible for his injury, it happened when I called him to rescue a kamikaze cat. After a lazy morning, I took possession of the bathroom and I was just about to get in the bath when I realised that there was something moving on the ledge outside. It was Oreo, he must have scrambled through the tiny top window and he was poised on the edge of the ledge ready to jump on to the paved area far below. I opened the larger window but he wouldn't come in, my and fear for his safety combined with fear of the vet bills if he survived the jump.

I was not prepared to scare the neighbours by hanging out of the window in a state of undress so I yelled for Robbie to help me. He sprinted up the stairs (clad only in pants) and reached out of the window and along the ledge and grabbed the cat. Oreo found himself flying through the air held only by the scruff of his neck, he is not used to such harsh treatment and he panicked. His legs flailed but there was nothing solid for him to grab. Then as Robbie swung him in through the window he realised that he was dangling over a full bath, and not being keen on total immersion he lurched to one side and sunk his claw into Robbie's chest. In a split second Robbie yelped and the cat fell to the floor and fled. A torrent of abuse followed and then Robbie clutched his chest and danced on one leg unable to adequately express his agony.

Oreo had come within an inch or so of piercing Robbie's left nipple! Robbie stood there admiring his wound and telling me over and over again that the claw had punctured the skin twice, it went right through his skin like a needle. I offered him a plaster, but he wasn't brave enough, he would have needed a general anaesthetic to remove it from his hairy chest! Since then Oreo has kept a safe distance from Robbie, but they have traded insults from opposite corners of the room.

Seeing Things! 29.08.07

It hasn't taken Robbie long to slip back into bad habits. He must have dosed off at the computer last night because he came to bed at about 2.00am and woke me up to say that he had seen a mouse in the lounge. I wasn't convinced as I have seen absolutely no evidence of mice and we have never had mice before. It was his next sentence that really made me smell a rat (forgive the pun). He told me that it was either a mouse or a cat and he had heard it scratching at the back door before he saw it. There is a significant difference in size between a mouse and a cat and it is unlikely that one could be mistaken for the other! I think he must have been dozing and got muddled up with what was real and what wasn't. It reminded me of an incident when my first husband was alive.

It was the early hours of the morning and Eric and I were asleep in bed. Suddenly he gave a loud scream and sat bolt upright, he told me that there had been a hairy mouse looking at him and I reassured him that he had been dreaming and he should go back to sleep. He was asleep again within minutes but I was just dozing when he screamed even louder, I was just in time to see something white and fluffy fly through the air, land on the floor and scurry under the bed. It gradually dawned on me that Sam's hamster had escaped from his cage, come all the way upstairs and decided to get in bed with Eric. By this time Eric was standing on the bed and refused to move until I caught the hamster, this proved challenging as he had frightened it with all the noise - not to mention the flying lesson. I had to go downstairs and search for a fishing net and after stalking my prey for a few minutes I managed to catch him and return him to the safety of his cage. Eric went straight back to sleep, but I was wide awake after all that excitement and by the time I dozed off it was time to get up. The hamster was fine, but I felt a bit off after the disrupted night

The only other incident involving a small rodent that I can recall was when Grandad was looking after Sam's hamster. We returned from holiday to find that he had been feeding an empty cage and the hamster was missing. Later in the day we discovered that it had set up home in the oven!! She had built a nest and a food stash in a baking tray, but there was no sign of the hamster. We pulled out the oven, fridge, washing machine, dryer and all the other bits and bobs in the kitchen, but she remained at large. Sam and Laura set several cunning traps around the kitchen hoping that she turned up. The cooker had to be cleaned and disinfected, but Sam was adamant that we couldn't use the oven until the hamster was caught in case we accidentally cooked it. He has a simple solution "we could just eat take away" he couldn't understand why I said no! We eventually caught the hamster when it created a second den under the computer cupboard.

The Curious Case of the Diasppearing Rabbit (and Trouser Troubles) 04.01.07

I mentioned yesterday that Sam's rabbit has escaped from her hutch. I was prevailed upon to buy her a hutch with access to a large run beneath it so that she had constant access to grass and an exercise area. It is beautifully made, and it provides her with every possible comfort, but there is just one thing that nobody thought about - rabbits burrow! As soon as she moved into her expensive new accommodation she decided that she would make a bid for freedom and within days she had tunnelled under the run and set about exploring her new territory. She is not a cute soft little bunny, she is a rabbit with attitude. She terrorises our dog, sees off the local cats and gives Sam the run-around. She has taken up residence under the shed and happily potters around the garden during the day. She even pops back to her hutch for the latest tasty morsels left to tempt her back, but she is too quick for us and she never stays there long enough to lose her liberty. She has been at large for about three weeks now and all Sam's Baldrick like cunning plans have failed to recapture the fugitive.
I am becoming frustrated by the situation now. With considerable effort I manage to keep Robbie and Sam in order (most of the time) and I am not ready to be outwitted by a rabbit, so I have been forced to invest in a humane rabbit trap and some reinforced wire for the base of the run. The trap should arrive tomorrow and I anticipate that the balance of power in our household will soon be restored.

Robbie is very upset this evening, he has managed to tear his best PJ bottoms, not just a slight tear, a huge, uneven tear at least 12 inches long and in a very embarrassing area. I think he harboured a forlorn hope that I would sew them up for him, but I had to gently explain that they were now beyond human help! I still can't work out how he managed to tear them. Oh well, I hated the things anyway - every cloud has a silver lining, or so they say!