It’s All Fun and Games until the Power Goes Out

I’m sure we have all heard the expression a game of cat and mouse. It usually means an attempt to “defeat someone by tricking them into making a mistake so that you have an advantage over them.” However, in Tirana, Albania (which is located just east of Italy), residents there will always associate the furry creatures with the expression. Because this past Friday, the electric company explained that a 72-hour blackout was caused when a cat chasing a mouse in its main power station ran into the high voltage power lines.

What seems perplexing to me is that no one in the electric company is shocked by the presence of a cat in the main power station. I understand that you cannot control a mouse, but a cat? Are they really having a cat problem in Albania? Is this the next gig for Bob Barker (of Price is Right fame) to start telling everyone, "Help control the pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered?" Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, because residents in Tirana have had such fickle electrical supply in the past, most of the home and businesses also have generators. However, they were off of petroleum which in turn has increased the demand for gas.