The Night Shift

By

'Pixie Chick'

          My nights are pretty much run of the mill really. Some nights are really good, and some are just plain lousy; it really depends on the intruders I guess. Once or twice I have a very good night and manage to nab three or four but that doesn’t happen very often.

          Ah yes, the night shift worker, odd really how some prefer to work during the day though. I’ve been in this job now for as long as I can remember and I must say I’m pretty good at it, which is just as well because I don’t think I’d be much good at anything else. Yes, it’s a satisfying job, no hassles, no bosses, no jumped up little subordinate telling me how to do my job. Can be cold sometimes though, and wet. I hate that! The heat can be quite tiring as well but I cope with that; an extra wash here and there and then a quick snooze then I’m up and at it again. At least in my job, there’s no-one to dock my pay for taking a nap.

          Seven days a week I work the night shift and if I feel like a night off, I just take it. Yes, my life is good and I can’t complain, after all, who gets a job this good these days.    

                                                                 

Mornings are always the same old routine too. Mother has my breakfast ready when I come through the door, then its bath time and bed. Most days I get to sleep all day undisturbed, but the days that really brass me off are when people come to see Mother when I’m trying to sleep and insist on making a noise and waking me up. Mother’s friends aren’t so bad mostly; they just talk and laugh loudly and it’s really annoying because it wakes me up. I give them one of my filthy looks, but it never makes any difference. It’s the ones who can’t take a hint that really get to me, you know, those ones who laugh so loudly it’s enough to wake the dead.

Sometimes I just have to leave my bed and go find somewhere else much quieter to sleep, and sometimes I don’t even get back to sleep at all.  Children are the worst; they just can’t bear to see me sleeping during the day and insist on annoying me till I just can’t stand it anymore and I have to leave.

          The weather plays a large part in my job. When it rains there aren’t as many intruders willing to get wet so those nights are always slow. However, when the weather gets cold, whoa! I catch many more intruders. That makes my life much more interesting and besides, with more around, I’m never bored. I wonder why they come around here when they know I’m on duty. Ah well, more for me anyway.

                                                                                     

Yes, this is a very satisfying job. There are a lot of us on the night shift and we are all good at our jobs; we are quiet, patient, and persistent and we have a very high success rate at catching intruders, after all they don’t make it easy for us with the places they can get into. Then I guess if we weren’t quiet, patient and persistent, we cats would never catch those horrid little mice would we!