Accessory before the fact
Monday, October 18th, 2004 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniWe feed the birds off our deck. It's one of those pleasant, harmless things that one does, and while there are hunting cats on the gore -- and sometimes on our deck -- they don't seem very able birders, though Scruffy has a very deft touch with a chipmunk.
This evening -- mere moments ago -- Scruffy nailed the upside-down bird (this would a "nuthatch" to the wider universe). I like most of the birds who come to the feeder (with the sort of general benevolence one feels for the gentle creatures of air and wood when they're not actually doing something destructive), but the nuthatch was my favorite. He would hang upside down from the wooden bird feeder and pull seeds out one at a time; he would stroll the deck stakes, unconcernedly perpendicular. He had a perpetual air of unassailable and faintly ridiculous dignity. He made me laugh.
And if we didn't make a habit of feeding the birds off the deck, he wouldn't have been in harm's way today.
I feel like a murderer.
This evening -- mere moments ago -- Scruffy nailed the upside-down bird (this would a "nuthatch" to the wider universe). I like most of the birds who come to the feeder (with the sort of general benevolence one feels for the gentle creatures of air and wood when they're not actually doing something destructive), but the nuthatch was my favorite. He would hang upside down from the wooden bird feeder and pull seeds out one at a time; he would stroll the deck stakes, unconcernedly perpendicular. He had a perpetual air of unassailable and faintly ridiculous dignity. He made me laugh.
And if we didn't make a habit of feeding the birds off the deck, he wouldn't have been in harm's way today.
I feel like a murderer.
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Re: Oh....hugs offered.
Date: 2004-10-19 02:47 pm (UTC)All of our cats are house-dwellers, too. Our land backs on the Straight Route from the village to Waterville, and is kept moderately busy (for Maine's definition of "busy") by lots of pickup trucks being driven waaaay too fast. Even if that weren't the case, I wouldn't want one of our guys to tangle with a 'coon or a fisher or a coyote. Nature may be red in tooth and nail, but our four signed the Housecat Contract...
Scruffy, the murderess, lives next house over, and wanders over to our place to hunt when the mice in her field get word out that The Cat is on the prowl. Usually, she stays down in the tall grass, but I have found her on the deck from time to time. Yesterday, I had no idea she was within a mile of the place until I saw her on the railing with the bird in her mouth.
Re: Oh....hugs offered.
Date: 2004-10-19 03:52 pm (UTC)