From mice and baby squirrels, Nysse has moved on to birds. He carried in a dead bird and set about to play with it, like with the squirrel. We did not want dead bird all over our floors, so we separated Nysse from the bird (despite his protests), took them both out into the garden and closed the door. Once he got his trophy back, he stopped fighting us and started playing, swatting and pouncing. When he tired of it and came indoors again, it didn’t take more than a minute for a magpie to pick up the leftovers.

I have very mixed feelings about this. I hadn’t expected quite this much killing. But I’m also not prepared to lock up the cat and let it live in misery the rest of its life.