A Bird, A Cat and A Rat

When do children change and become someone so different from the child who you remember raising? Whilst Skyping my daughter in Queensland our call was interrupted when she suddenly left her chair and begun pushing various lounge seats across her floor; first one way and then another. All the time she was calling, "Come out rat. Where are you?" Not to miss a beat she resumed our conversation explaining that the cat had delivered or should I say gifted her a live rat. She proudly revealed its dimensions and was not at all perplexed that she had been unable to locate it since its delivery. She looked down at the floor to see a little bird also still alive and laying at her feet. She bent to retrieve the bird to release it to its more familiar environs, outside. Not a moment later her white cat reappeared after a two day absence. Not a word berating its holiday or reappearance. I recall when our children were young the screams when our two new puppies yelped and sent them terrified to chairs and table tops. So scared were they that we had to relinquish ownership of them, back to the pound. I must add a footnote to the puppy story. They were not abandoned without care and thought for we packed their little, blue, matching, food bowls, evidence of their full immunisations and lastly the toothpaste and their toothbrushes that we had purchased at the vets to ensure their hygiene. My but we have changed.