Not many of you will know that we have two cats, Meep and Spot. Now Spot, our big fat hairy ginger Tom cat is a right big softy, loving cuddles and affection and always ‘talking’ to us about everything. Meep on the other hand is one of those cats who knows she is a superior being and that her species were once worshipped as gods. She is a snob and her life is on her terms. She’s always been a bit of a nightmare as far as catching birds and small animals is concerned and we (unfortunately) regularly find little corpses on the front and back door steps.
As it’s quite muggy tonight we have had the back door open all evening to let some fresh air in and Meep came in as normal. She went under the dining room table, and into her cat hidey thing (you know the sort, a wooden box covered in furry stuff). Again nothing appeared out of the ordinary until there was an odd noise and she shot under the coffee table. At that point I kind of figured that something was up and made a grab for her.
The next thing I knew a small bird was making a dive to safety under one of my supplies cupboards with Meep in hot pursuit. Meep was soon grabbed and chucked back out into the garden and that left me with a bird in the house! Thankfully my cupboards have wheels and after having a peek down the back with a mobile phone light which showed me where the bird was, I was able to move the right cupboard. Grabbing a soft tea towel I tried to lay it over the bird so I could catch it to see how it was. The bird had other ideas (hardly surprising after being in my cats mouth!) and decided to make a bid for freedom.. Straight into ‘that’ corner.. You know the one, the one at the end of the sofa where your other half has to stash stuff he really doesn’t know what to do with.. So out comes the mobile phone torch again and after digging through all his ‘treasured possessions’ the bird which turns out to be a young sparrow is located. Several attempts at catching it later it makes a dive for one of the sections in our box cabinet and is finally trapped with the aid of one of my fish keeping nets.
A very quick examination later it appears that it it is unhurt, I know it can fly and so me and the young bird take a wander out into our cul- de-sac to find a safe release spot. And off he or she goes after I let it out of the net in a neighbours shrubby garden.
Now I know that cats will catch birds and animals, it’s in their nature and I don’t go all daft because my female cat does it (Spot is too fat, lazy and like Garfield to bother with things like that) but it sure does make a change for me to be able to let one go free after Meep has had a go at it.
Good luck little bird and watch out for that black cat creeping up on you in future 🙂
Cat – 0, Bird – 1!
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