By Paul Harris


Behind you! Larry the Downing Street cat prepares to pounce as the mouse pops its head up


The mouse was within a whisker of disaster.

Or rather he might have been, had the predator in pursuit been slightly sharper on his paws.

But this predator was Larry, the Downing Street cat. And Larry, bless him, is not Britain’s most ferocious mouser.


So when the visiting rodent strayed into the four-year-old moggy’s territory, it turned into a cat and mouse caper worthy of Tom and Jerry.

At first, Larry looked as if he meant business. Eyes narrowed, stalking silently along the lawn, he crept out of a garden to the right of the Number 10 doorstep.

What had he seen? Could it, at last, be the very quarry that Larry was brought in to hunt when the Camerons adopted him last February?

Suddenly it became clear it was indeed a mouse. The little rodent (let’s call him Mandy) rose momentarily above lawn-level. Larry pounced and, err… missed.

Now where is it? Larry searches the gulley as the mouse ducks out of sight


‘The mouse got away and was bouncing around trying to escape,’ said the photographer who took these pictures. ‘The cat was jumping around too, trying to catch it. It kept leaping out of Larry’s claws and managed to get down into a little gulley.’

A few seconds later, presumably thinking the coast was clear, Mandy popped his head up.

‘Larry took a swipe and missed,’ said the photographer.

‘Then the mouse ran into a bush and got away. The cat did follow but he didn’t come out again with a mouse between his teeth.’

Whether the encounter was truly a happy ending for the mouse is unclear. The alternative, of course, is too terrible to contemplate.

But news of Larry’s first documented kill would surely have warranted a press release, lobby briefing and triumphant TV interviews.

In fairness, Larry is said to have earned his keep before now.

Mr Cameron himself insists the cat has been helping to keep down what he called Number 10’s ‘mouse infestation’.


source:dailymail