I’m sure if you’ve read my last 2 posts you’re wondering just how we manage to keep Lilly from getting into Sam & Leslie’s cage. Well…let’s just say we’ve already had to replace one screen for the top already. At least the new one is made of a much heavier duty mesh. She initially seemed more interested in the crickets than the geckos – she comes into my son’s room when I feed them & they’re all jumping around, which of course fascinates her immensely. Maggie & Lilly follow me around the house wherever I go ’cause ya know, they might miss out on something really exciting – ya right…
It’s only been recently that Lilly discovered that there was something more in the tank…And she is an indoor/outdoor cat who LOVES to hunt and bring me “presents” – after she’s done playing with them, of course. When the weather is warm, I’ll leave one of the kitchen windows that opens onto our deck open so she can come & go. The problem with that is if I’m not paying attention, she brings her catches in with her. She’s gotten in the house with several mice (already dead thankfully) & a couple of birds 😦 At least I noticed one of them in time & she dropped it – dazed & unhurt, on the table. At which point, when I tried to pick it up to take it outside, it flew to another window & perched on top of the curtain. I’m trying not to flip out at this point & keep Lilly out of the kitchen until I can safely get the poor thing outside. Luckily, I managed to catch it from the curtain & get it out the back door to release it – thankfully. It flew immediately into one of our maple trees and seemed no worse for wear. I felt so guilty because I put out feeders for the birds, but honestly thought they were too high for her to reach. She’d never caught a bird before (to my knowledge) and this one was a goldfinch – damn it!
But wait…a week later, I’m in the living room absorbed in something else and hear her rolling around on the other side of the room making playful noises. At first, I’m thinking she’s just playing with one of her toys…Then the light bulb came on & I ran over to see what she was playing with. It was a dead goldfinch…:( I was too late this time. Hopefully, it wasn’t the same one she brought in the week before – you’d think if it was, it would’ve made the poor thing a little more cautious. I’ll never know…But again, I felt so guilty.
I grew up with cats and therefore, have virtually never lived without (at least) one. I know they are predators, carnivores & sometimes…slightly *sadistic*. I’m well aware that it’s in their nature to hunt – whether that hunting is a fuzzy catnip filled toy or a live animal. They are only doing what comes naturally to them and you can’t get mad at them for being a cat. But I *hate* it when they manage to kill a bird – which is pretty fucking hard to do. I’ve had several cats in my lifetime that have managed to do just that – Lilly being one of those, obviously.
One of my previous fur babies (Pywackette – who I will never forget & miss for the rest of my life) left me half a squirrel on my front door step one day. That was her particular signature kill – she would eat part of the mouse, or whatever she caught – but only half – the back half…BLEH…and leave the rest for me to *~admire~*. At the time, I was living in OKC in a house with a lot of trees & an open air atrium which would get over run with field mice in the fall, so I was glad she was doing what cats do best – and learned to suck it up when I had to deal with the leftovers. Finding the half eaten carcases when I got home every day wasn’t exactly pleasurable, but hey – nothing comes for free, right??? Right…
Back to the point of this post – if there ever really was one, other than to tell cat ~tails~;) – all I can do is try to keep my son’s door shut most of the time and occasionally holler for her if I don’t see her sleeping by my desk or in one of the chairs downstairs. And pray to all the Gods of the Universe that the heavy duty mesh cover does what it is intended to do – keep the crickets inside the tank & Lilly out!
And because I love George Carlin – he was BRILLIANT, enjoy this:
Lilly Luv 