One Cat

Pets can be almost as exciting as children. A mixture of pets guarantees a bit of excitement.

I've written about dogs previously, but we do have one cat. Go-Go is the cat's name and she is about six years old. She is a unique cat, in my experience, being an indoor/outdoor cat. Most of the spring and summer she will spend outdoors. She's got a cat village on the north side of the house among the ferns. I know it's truly winter when she wants to come into the house.

Coming into the house used to be a chancy thing for her; way too many dogs in here. A year ago in January we had four dogs. April of 2006 we had our beloved Lily euthanized; she had a cancer that had invaded her spine. June of 2006 our sweet Meekaleek was euthanized; she had a tumor on her liver. Thus our dog population was dramatically, and sadly, reduced.

Our Princessa, Lily, barely tolerated other dogs, let alone other species. As the alpha dog goes, so go the lesser dogs. With two dogs however, Go-Go is willing to take her chances. Some back-up from the humans helps, of course. In the past six months she's gotten reacquainted with the inside of the house. Enough so to have evolved a routine of sitting on MySpouse's lap while he reads his daily blogs.

Although we feed her, she continues to hunt. The Saturday before Easter she had a headless baby rabbit in front of the porch door. I said to MySpouse "Everybody bites the head off the bunny first." I was glad I hadn't eaten yet. When we returned from shopping the rabbit corpse was gone, thankfully.

Mostly Go-Go hunts and catches birds. A lot of starlings, I think. MySpouse says they are extremely stupid birds and dislikes them intensely. I've never encountered any brightly colored plumage in her leavings; no evidence of bluejays, cardinals, or flickers being the meal of the day.

This morning I saw her trotting down the walkway with a bundle of dull feathers in her mouth and promptly forgot what I'd seen. I came in from the backyard intending to pass thru the house to the front yard and do a flower walk. When I opened the front door the dogs burst out onto the porch, Go-Go jumped onto the chest freezer, and the bird flew into the house.

The bird bumbled about in the living room, then found it's way into the kitchen.

I put the dogs out in the backyard. Brought Go-Go into the kitchen and said "Find your prey and get it out of here." Then I took a cup of coffee to the backyard and said to the dogs "Deja vu, kids; I think we've done this before." I stayed outdoors long enough to drink my coffee, about 15 minutes.

Hopefully that was long enough for Go-Go to find her bird. Now all I have to do is figure out where in the house she may have taken the bird and put it outdoors. Before I bathe and get ready for work...