This is the little beastie from next door who looms around the family home and garden, attempting to attack the nesting blackbirds - driving them away in the process, twice last year - peeing on our nooshies grave, and suddenly turning up in the window like some kind of feline version of Michael Myers, scaring my mother witless.
This little lady is the reason my folks will have to be very careful about where they situate the bird box I bought them. She's an expert climber, so the box will go on a wall. The good news is that fledgling great tits - the leading candidate to use the box I reckon - stay in the branches and don't scuttle around on the ground like young blackbirds.
I remember when she first arrived next door, she was all sweetness and light, and loved to be stroked and rub up against your legs. Then she started getting haughty when Nooshie got ill, and lording it over the garden, although even a fit-addled Noo-noo was able to chase her off. Then we caught her attacking the blackbird nest, shinning up the pergola, and we gave her a good shouting at.
As soon as she sees any of us now, she slinks off like the naughty cat she is. But while we aren't looking, she's out there, pottling and widdling, and upsetting the birds. She has a brother, a black cat with a tail like a red squirrel, that just sits on the fence and my stepfather evils through the kitchen window while waiting for a passing witch to pick him up.
We love all cats. We really do. Except those two.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 14.02.16
We have friends a few doors away who are owned by a cat who bullies our cat. I always shoo him off and squirt him wih a water pistol. Last time we were at our friends' house, their cat sat on the stairs and stared at me all evening; "What are THEY doing in my house?"
ReplyDeleteWe all so miss having a cat, me when I'm visiting, the folks all the time. Mum got a Hamley's cheetah as a surrogate cat.
ReplyDeleteI always considered myself a cat lover, but then I understood I mainly had loved our own (cute) cats. Living for some years in a neighbourhood with many cats (nearly every household had at least one) that were using our garden and the walls of the house as a toilet, I cherished a Dream of some really good shots with a super soaker... :D
ReplyDeleteCats, I don't like them. They are EVIL, killing all birds!
ReplyDeleteAll cats are evil, except the ones I have known well. No, that's not true - they are evil too, but too charming for words.
ReplyDeleteWe have a cat. She catches birds and I hate her doing so but can't stop her (believe me I've tried!!). I can't understand people who love their cats to catch mice, rats, etc but find them evil for catching birds.
ReplyDeleteA simple bell would solve a lot of problems. That cat was belled, then I noticed her owners took her collar off.
ReplyDeleteHello Simon. The only cat we have around here is a wild one that has been surviving for about 3 years or so in a large territory of gardens and fields. It is difficult to catch to re-home! Unfortunately it will be hunting and I do fear for the birds here, especially the fledglings in spring.
ReplyDeleteI put some (washed) bacon bits out for our Crow on the shed roof, only to find three cats chomping away at the food! The dog usually keeps the cats out of the garden so the birds don't mind him at all..
ReplyDeleteAmanda xx
I wonder if I struggle to attract birds to my feeder because of the cats that skulk around.
ReplyDeleteOther peoples' cats are a pain in the posterior. They hang around the bird feeders and dig up my spring bulbs to make a toilet area.
ReplyDelete