Rat Base One

Yesterday morning I opened the rat cage to give Meg and Jack some of last night's curry. Now, usually this would provoke a general excited scramble as both rats displayed their different agendas. (Meg lives for the moment and devours everything she can get her paws on as soon as she gets it. Jack carries food away and hoards it for later. Meg mugs Jack on her way to the food stash. Etc.) Today, however, there was deathly silence. It was only when a small grey and white face peeped out from behind the sofa that we realised they hadn't just been sleeping late.

So we hauled out the sofa, and in one corner we found

• the core of a green pepper
  
• a chicken bone
  
• a teabag, shredded, the dry tea leaves spread in a circle
  
• my laptop network cable, coiled in a neat pile and much chewed
  
• and a yellow glass marble
  

They had clearly been working on their new hideout all night and provisioned it with everything that could possibly be desired by the heart of rat. It's the marble especially that gets me. (When people have achieved the basic necessities of life, they turn their attention to entertainment and ornaments.)

I was sorry to have to play vengeful goddess, hoover it all up and put them back in the cage. They sulked all day. In their position, I would too.