Things that go pounce in the night

Early this morning I heard the cat scurrying and pouncing around the kitchen and I thought she had finally decided to take some interest in the mouse problem. I found her sitting proudly in the kitchen like a lioness guarding a fresh kill and I was just getting ready to shower her with praise until I saw what she was guarding.

It was a plant.

To be specific, she had stalked and destroyed a few leaves of Wandering Jew. Now we have Wandering Jew growing in pots in every room in the house except the kitchen, but that whole "wandering" thing is a myth. I have never known the plant to be independently ambulatory.

So now we have a cat who turns up her nose at pesky little mice but is quite happy to bat a piece of a plant all over the house. She earns no praise from me!

(And let me just mention that it's difficult to write about this topic without unintentionally evoking offensive ethnic stereotypes. Surely the plant must have another name! After all, there's a plant we call "Mother-in-Law's Tongue," but whenever I use that name outside the family, no one knows what I'm talking about.)