At the time Sandra, I'd have paid a million pounds to save Minty, as he's very dear to us. My husband was in Africa visiting his family, and Minty is his favourite cat. I wanted him to be still alive when 'dad' came home. And one could ask, "What price to save a loved one?" I could have had him euthanased, but it's so hard to face. I reckon vets know this. It made me think about the NHS and how awful it would be to have to pay for treatment of a human loved-one, as in Africa.

Gnu, we're about 500 miles from Dundee.

Regarding 'mousers', it's quite true that eating mice gives cats tapeworms. And while cats will eat MOST of the mouse, one finds a dismembered head or a lone tail lying about on the carpet. Not pretty.
Ours when younger used to bring in mice to play with mercilessly, tossing them around until they expired. And rats. And pheasants (posted with difficulty through the cat flap) And rabbits. And pigeons.... and even sloe worms.
And all my (male only) cats through the years have weed on anything that takes their fancy. Siamese are terrible for that. Even directly into sockets, causing sparks to fly out. (We've taped plastic sheets over ours!)
To be honest, cats are a bloody nuisance. (But have enriched my life immeasurably over the decades) Terrible buggers...