A GAME OF CAT AND RAT

Today has been quite eventful and some of the events I could have done without. The day began well with Pa up in time for his hospital appointment and the fortnightly delivery of groceries arrived intact except for the usual box of broken eggs.
I decided to make the most of a morning to myself by doing a batch of baking and soon there were two large ginger cakes and four dozen cherry shortbread biscuits. The fun began when I was having a well earned mug of coffee before tackling the washing up, the kitchen was very hot and I had opened the door to let in some fresh air. While drinking my coffee I became engrossed in a Welsh cookery book and had been sitting at the kitchen table for about ten minutes when a slight movement caused me to look up.
Sitting on the doorstep as bold as brass and washing his whiskers the while was a very large rat,he seemed completely unaware of my presence and of the cat Twiggy who was crouched a few feet behind him with a fiendish expression on her face.
She pounced, she missed, I let out a yell and the rat took advantage of the ensuing confusion to escape in to the kitchen where he hid at the back of the tumble drier.

Now although I am not afraid of rats I do deplore their anti-social habits and I confess that I was not happy to be sharing my kitchen with this wretched rodent. Remembering that rats hate loud noises I took my walking stick and banged on the tumble dried as hard as I dared, it worked, the rat abandoned his hiding place and fled out of the door closely followed by the cat. Gratefully I shut the door upon the pair of them and returned to my coffee, it was cold.

At about this time I began to feel an acute pain in my back and sides which I recognised at once. I suffer from kidney stones and have had l number of stays in hospital and a good deal of treatment for this painful problem. Within minutes I was doubled up and had no choice but to lie down for a while in the hope that the pain would subside. Quite often the stones pass through the system without help but now and again they get stuck and that can be real trouble. If the pain lasts more that a few hours I have to go to hospital as things can get quite serious when the stones impact.
Some hours later things were better and I hope that I shall have no more trouble for a while at least.

Pa had good results from his visit to hospital and my son is still happily disporting himself about the peaks and caverns of Derbyshire. I feel dreadfully tired tonight and hope that I shall soon be asleep . Twiggy who shows no remorse for this mornings performance has just arrived and is insisting upon on cuddle, so nicely bathed and comfortable at last I shall go thankfully off to bed. Night night.