Your story about Emmaline and her "friend" reminded me of a story my sister told me about a neighbor and his cat. The neighbor's cat was an indoor cat, with no opportunities to hunt naturally. The neighbor decided to get his cat a special present for Christmas - not the kind of gift that I would support, but nevertheless, this is how the story goes: the neighbor got the cat (a meezer) a live mouse to hunt. The mouse was turned loose in the apartment with the assumption that the cat would joyously pounce on it and unleash its ungratified predatory needs. But that did not happen. Instead, the cat took the mouse on as its "pet," and used to chase or carry it - but never harmed it. I think that eventually, the neighbor took the mouse back to the pet store, and my guess is that the mouse was probably relieved. I can't imagine it was ever sure that its life was safe in the presence of its natural foe. It could be that the cat simply did not know how to hunt - generally kittens are taught by their mothers, in stages - the culminating lesson being how to deliver the killing bite, which involves placing one canine tooth between the vertibrae of the neck to sever the spinal cord. Sorry to be grim, but that's the official method. Anyhow - it's true that some cats know how to hunt but not how to kill, because we used to have one - and we used to have to capture the mice she had found and release them outside, because otherwise, there would have been endless mayhem. (We live way out in the country, in an old house, and the occasional mouse in the house is just a fact of country living. At my grandmother's we used to get snakes, too! I am glad we just have a mouse or too where we are.) Okay - I've been long winded enough. I am glad your friend Emmaline had her own friend for a while. I hope her friend appreciated the friendship. It must not have been too troubled, I suppose, or it would have found other dwellings.