|
|
|
rent paying among cats
Monday, May 6 2002Every now and then there is a scrawny little squirrel that comes up on the back porch for no particular reason. There is nothing for him to eat out there, so I guess he is just making the rounds of his little urban squirrel territory. These days with the weather being so nice, the back door is usually wide open, and I'm often sitting nearby at my computer when he appears. If Sally is awake, I'll urge her to run out and greet the squirrel, a task she undertakes with enthusiasm. But there's no hope of her actually catching the squirrel. She can't catch squirrels under the most advantageous conditions, and this squirrel usually patrols his territory from atop cyclone fencing. Of the keyads, only Eddie Edna has such balancing talents.
Edna, meanwhile, seems mostly interested in feathered creatures. Recently she brought us a freshly-killed adult Catbird. Gretchen was horrified, of course, and now wants to get a little bell to put on Edna's collar.
Edna mostly applies her hunterly predilections, pointless and cruel though they seem, to the task of gift-giving (or, perhaps in her mind, rent-paying). Surprising though this may seem, Edna is a generous giver of gifts. Most of her gifts are found objects from adjacent back yards. In the fall they consisted of particularly large leaves or discarded wing feathers. More recently, she's managed to find several gloves, at least one plastic bag, and a large white pair of women's underwear. I suppose she thought she was really outdoing herself when she bagged that Catbird.
The backyard squirrel.
Sally with the rawhide bone she hasn't yet eaten.
(I gave it to her on April 9th.)
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?020506 feedback
previous | next |
