'
rats, cats and owls'
The water rats sniffed the evening
air, satisfied all was well,
slid down the side of
the docked ship, scurried across the mud
and submerged themselves in the river
which flowed into the sea.
They began to swim
upstream, soon passing some cabin cruisers,
docked for the night, then continuing along,
until the black shape
of a jetty loomed up ahead. Some
rowing boats were tied up here
which the rats soon scampered across then
onto the rivers bank.
Not far away loomed the dark shapes of
some farm buildings, made
up of a barn some cowsheds and the
farmhouse. A door opened and
a patch of light spread across the yard, a
woman appeared and started
to call in her cats, tapping on a plate at
the same time.
At the top of the barn
some tawny owls were just waking up for the
nights hunting, positioning themselves at
the edge of a small entrance
and peering out looking for prey. The two
rats having heard the
farmers wife earlier on now ran quickly
from the long grass and across
a bare patch of land to the back of the
barn where they soon found a
hole and disappeared inside. Feeling fairly
safe now that the cats were
gone they nibbled a hole in a sack of corn
and started to enjoy the tasty
morsels that trickled out.
One of the owls lifted an eye
slightly and turning his head almost
completely round, peered back into the
darkness of the barn, having
picked up the scent
of something edible. The layout inside the barn
wasn't suitable for a clear swoop
down, the flight would cause the
prey to run, so the owl without a sound
winged over to a building
opposite where he could observe more
clearly.
The farmhouse door was opened again and
the cats let out. The rats on
hearing this decided to leave in a hurry
and easily slipped out into the
yard and sped off towards the
long grass. The tawny owl on spotting
the runners took off at once and started
to glide down fast on them and
was a split second from making a kill when
a black shape loomed up
bowling the owl to one side, where it gave
out a sharp screech, scaring
the daylights out of the cat it had just
collided with who had been after
the same pray and now took off in fright.
This mishap gave the rats time to reach
the long grass and the river,
where they entered the water and returned
to the ship, safe again until
the next nights adventure.
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