Shrews don't bounce

I am acquainted with a variety of small animals, thanks to my cat who likes to bring them in and release them around the house.  That's how I know that mice, when dropped, land on their little feet and go seamlessly from being airborne to running like the clappers.  Woodmice also, cleverly, pretend to be dead: they know that the cat quickly loses interest in anything that's not running around for him to play with.  Then, when you come along to pick them up and dispose of them, they miraculously wake up and disappear under the dresser.

New this year are the voles we have been presented with: field voles and bank voles.  Both are up for a game as they they run around tirelessly, until the cat, sick of being bitten (because they are extremely feisty), forgets about them and.... they disappear under the dresser.

I'm a dab hand at catching mice and voles by predicting were they are going next and plonking an ice-cream tub over them to free them in the back garden where I assume they came from. 

Also new this year are the tiny little shrews, which are truly fascinating.  Shrews are incredibly tiny, and so fast on their feet they would leave any mouse behind.  They are also very good at climbing: I once saw one climb up the mantlepiece just like Spiderman. Their strategy for escaping the cat is to get off the floor.  First thing yesterday the cat brought in a shrew, which after spending a few minutes under the dresser (a popular place), decided to break cover and make for the patio doors, with the cat in hot pursuit.  I was standing by the full length curtain, with my ice-cream tub at the ready, when I heard the shrew climb up the curtain: within seconds it was 6ft up, nestled in the folds of the curtain.  I opened the doors to offer it a way out, and gently unfolded the curtain to see where it was.  It dropped to the floor and...knocked itself out.  I scooped it up, and it came round, safe in the ice-cream tub, and I released it in the undergrowth, where it ran off, seemingly unharmed - a lucky escape for this little shrew, with its long soft little nose and its velvety little body.  I don't imagine it weighs much more than a teaspoon of sugar!