Adventures

As some of you are aware, the Bag Lady shares her domain with several critters. The Princess dog rules the house, and in her mind, at least there is a strict pecking order. She comes first (naturally), then the Rancher, then the Bag Lady, then the two cats. The cats, of course, may not feel the same way, but have never really told the Bag Lady their true feelings. They go about their business (eating, sleeping, and occasionally howling at the closet door where their treats are located) and pretend to ignore the dog.

The older cat, Tommy, has been around for many years, and spends a good portion of his time sleeping; curled around a heater, or the base of the wood stove in the winter. He is an excellent mouser, but considers that to be a seasonal occupation, and that season doesn't happen to be winter.

The younger cat, Fuzzy, feels it is his duty to hunt regardless of the season, or the prey! If it moves, it should be hunted down. Even if that means lying in wait on one of the stools at the kitchen island and swatting at the dog's tail when she walks by!

The Bag Lady is a lover of nature, and started feeding the birds in the winter many, many years ago. Once a human has started interfering with nature feeding the birds, the human is obligated to continue because the birds come to rely on that source of food. So, even though the Bag Lady has cats, she continues to feed the birds. She tries to pay attention and make sure that the cats don't hunt the birds, but occasionally Fuzzy manages to escape and spends a lot of time under the bird feeder, waiting for an unsuspecting bird to come within range of his razor sharp claws.

The Bag Lady was working at her computer yesterday afternoon when the older cat started acting very strangely, pawing at the sliding glass door. The Bag Lady got up to see what the ruckus was about and discovered that Fuzzy had a bird in the sunporch! Flinging the door open, she grabbed the cat and threw him into the house, slamming the door behind her. The bird had hopped a few feet away and stopped, huddled down, probably waiting for the final blow. This enabled the Bag Lady to actually catch the poor little creature. She inspected him for mortal wounds, but could see no blood or anything obvious. She took him into the house with her (mostly because it was freakin' cold!) and she and the Rancher inspected him closely. They finally determined that he was not wounded, except for a few missing feathers, and the Bag Lady took him outside again. He perched on her finger and seemed to give it a little thought, then took off.



Unfortunately, his flight was a little premature and he did a nose dive straight into a snow bank! Covered him completely. The Bag Lady ran back into the house, struggled into some boots and a coat, grabbed some mittens and went back out to rescue him. She dug him out of the snow and held him in her hand for a minute. He decided to try again, with the same unfortunate result! (It was almost comical, and the Bag Lady wishes she had a video to share with you, but she was too concerned about rescuing him to take pictures! The pictures included here were taken shortly after she saved him from the cat.)

She took him back into the house and warmed him up. Then she placed him in the only thing she could think of that would protect him and allow him to recover completely - the cat carrier!
After about half an hour, he seemed to revive quite well, and started trying to fly around the cage, so the Bag Lady took the carrier outside, making sure the cats were locked in the house, and set it on a table. She opened the door and within a minute, the little Redpoll flew out of the carrier. He weaved a little, but he managed to fly to the spruce tree across the yard where he is (hopefully) telling all his friends and relatives a cautionary tale of his strange adventure!


Oh, and Fuzzy cat was treated to a (slightly unwelcome) pedicure the very same day!