When the cat's away, the mice will play

So says my neighbor.   His cat is always outside looking for prey and not in the house.   He's also a very small young cat.   On the other hand my cat keeps the place too clean.

Hugo came over yesterday morning saying that his drain pipe under the kitchen sink broke and did I have any extras.   I did have this flexible one that works well in odd situations.   He didn't bring over the broken one so I don't know what the original problem was.

Again this morning water all over the kitchen and Hugo blaming Lorena until he got down and looked at the pipe that had only been there for 12 hours.   So headed into town in a few minutes to buy another pipe or two and some rat/mice poison.   Must be good tasting plastic and maybe paint some yukky stuff on the next one.  Then maybe they are collecting for a nest?

My front gate project

This is my front gate and I had to put up a wire mesh for two reasons. The neighbor kids down the street got a new puppy that loved to squeeze thru the bars and harass my cats and poop in the yard. The kids were also ringing my front bell a couple times a day asking for the puppy back.

The second reason is when I'm gone I've been leaving food in the garage in case the 'caretaker' can't get the cats back in the house before she leaves. My cats don't mind very well. Of course this garage food was available for any hungry cat in the neighborhood. So now that I'm back a few cats that I don't know feel welcome to come in the house when I'm not looking. They also have a habit pooping in the middle of the lawn.

Today I bought 8 meters of this wire mesh and I had a roll of wire. 8 meters because I was thinking of going two levels high (meter each) with this new fence/gate. Just as I was finishing the car gate about 6-8 kids came over and reminded me that the smaller person gate needs to be covered or the puppy could get thru. I agreed but was gonna probably be a tomorrow thing for me. They were just too enthused to wait for tomorrow so we cut a piece to fit and they did most of the wiring the mesh to the iron bars. Even tho they had not done anything like that before they really tried hard in total earnestness. Cutting the wire, twisting the wire and I only had to give them a few hints.

End result is it is done. Not like I would have done it but it works. And this is Mexico and these were well behaved kids learning and trying. After they had to do somersaults in the grass and take home a few pomegranates (granadas) and limes they found in the backyard.

My front gate


The wire mesh


My neat wire twists


The kids work

Look what the cats brought home

One of these was ours but at this point I can't remember which. These suddenly started appearing at our doorstep a few months ago and has since stopped - probably because there are no more left in the neighborhood. They also brought home a bird a few days ago but I'm sure the dusters are much slower. Mystery never solved but I'm careful which of the neighbors I ask over.

Another day in Melaque - Costalegre