The Cat and the Owl

We have this sneaky cat that has been hanging around the grounds here. It is not ours. The musty old feline we had is doing deserved garden time now, thank God. This is a smallish gray thing and I suspect he is zeroing in on the bird feeder or at least hanging in the under brush where he sees the sparrows and finches flitting out.

Now, I am no fan of cats due in part because they are the number one killer of song birds, at least here in the states. I suspect in other parts of the world, including Europe, there are very few song birds because they have been eaten on shish-kebabs, plus we saw untold number of cats in France ( the old castles have rats which is a tradition). The locals net them in great number, if they can still find them. They defeather them and roast them as tidbits on a stick. The diners apparently are indiscriminate in their choice of species---maybe the endangered ones make them horny. As a result there are areas, particularly in the middle east where they are gone.What the cats don't get, they eat. Serious evironmentalist there.

Fortunately, in Wisconsin we don't consume many song birds---Norwegians and Swedes have never fancied them even though they eat weird fish material. Cats around here are forever cruising because so many people just let them out thinking they are harmless and eat only rodents. Wrong there. We had a cat one time that had about 20 dead young robins under a choke cherry bush. Just killed them and left them lay. I didn't kill the cat but it crossed my mind.

Interestingly, last night as were were laying in bed minding our business, when we heard an owl hoot just to the south and I found myself thinking it might be a fat Great Horned. Not sure but just wishing---or might be a Great Gray, maybe a hungry Great Snowy. Slyly, I was thinking the cat was, in fact, smallish and inclined to shuffle around a night. Then I remembered the story of a guy who watched a Horned Owl making a low approach to a cat intently hunting ground-dwelling birds in Colorado. The Owl came up behind the cat and in one motion embedded his laws in the brain of the cat. The owl never lost its stride and flew off to see if it had made the kill. Which it had. Owls eat cats. Now we are talking. Ya baby.

I like cats myself but can't finish a whole one, plus there are so many cats and so few recipes. I'm pulling for the Owl, might even make an Owl nest, maybe catch the cat and tie it out. I know..