Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Pandora Learns A Lesson
by admin - 20:21 on 06 April 2013
Winter returned today, bringing sleety rain and cold winds – none of which deterred The Fearless Ones from continuing yesterday's small game hunt, although the conditions did lower the death toll.
I returned from today's market at Dornoch (where sales of A Cat Called Tess passed three hundred) to learn from Matchgirl that another common lizard had been snatched from the jaws of oblivion but a chaffinch had not been so lucky.
However, Pandora The Destroyer learned a valuable lesson: a bird fighting for its life can inflict injury on an over-confident kitten. The Tabby Terror already has a small scar on her nose, left by a desperate vole; now she has a larger wound just above it. If beak had met eye the hunter could have become Pirate Pandora.
A recuperating kitten, nose buried in her tail
The killer consumed her prey, feigning unconcern, but much of her evening was spent curled up on the desk in The Kittenry, recovering. With luck, the experience will slow her down. More likely is that our cute little kitten will grow into a strapping adult (the signs of mature size are unmistakable) with torn ears and a face filled with nicks and scars.
As my contribution to keeping birdlife safe in the garden, tomorrow I'll level The Seed Volcano beneath the apple tree feeder – it provides too much ambush opportunity. The job has already begun, for last night the volcano was ripped into by a mystery visitor. Whether it was roe deer rooting up seed or a carnivore in pursuit of rodents tunnelling beneath it, I don't know. The Bushnell wasn't in operation last night. Tonight it will be.
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