Disturbed Night

We had a thrice disturbed night on Thursday, which is quite unusual because our road is fairly quiet. We were first woken by some neighbours who were talking loudly in the street in the early hours; I think that they were setting off on holiday but they were certainly much noisier than necessary. Then, still in the very early hours, we heard a terrible clattering in the downstairs hall. James rushed downstairs to find that Flora had squeezed into the tiny space behind the wine rack, perhaps remembering that a mouse had once hidden from her there, and had managed to tip a couple of bottles out of the rack and onto the floor. Luckily they hadn’t broken but what a racket! Finally at about 5 a.m. a bird came flying into the bedroom, closely pursued by Tom cat. It crashed into the window and Tom grabbed it in his mouth and ran off in the direction of the stairs. James chased him but by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs the poor bird dropped lifeless from Tom’s jaws. We were exhausted for the rest of the day.