This was our cat Prudence on her favourite perch, a tall fence post in the garden where she would sit for ages and watch the world go by. She would then suddenly leap off and bound across the lawn to pounce on some unsuspecting mouse that had had the timerity to invade her garden.

She regularly brought us presents, which she would release somewhere in the house and then sit back to watch us try to catch whatever it was. For example late one evening we were alerted by a loud and frantic scrabbling from the kitchen and switched on the light to find a large mole trying to dig its way out. Unlike the mice she usually brought in it was relatively easy to catch. I didn't see her laughing as I carried it outside but I suspect that she was.

One morning I levered myself out of bed half asleep as usual and stood on what felt like a half eaten jellybaby, which promptly glued itself to the bottom of my foot. It surprised me because the children hadn't had any jellybabies recently and, in any case, I'd never known them to leave a treat of any sort half eaten. I was even more surprised when I peeled it off my foot and examined it more closely.

A rabbit's eyeball stared back at me.

Prudence was full of surprises.