The Glowing Edge

Olive Guards the Birdfeeder

Written by

Lisa Creech Bledsoe

in

We have a jillion birds that come to our feeder.

Downy woodpeckers (lots of those), cardinals, jays, chickadees, warblers, mourning doves, sparrows. A jillion. And Olive is damned and determined she should have one as a pet. And by pet, I mean snacktoy.

The problem is, there’s just so much… sleeping that needs to be done. And stretching, and even grooming now and then. I stood out there on the deck for about 10 minutes and she did everything — everything — except watch for birds. Sometimes she crouches out there and falls asleep with her nose touching the ground. Recently she dug a little hole by the birdfeeder pole, and she happily rolls and swats and tosses pine needles and bits of leaf litter up in the air once in a while.

I think this is also how men fish.

Frankly, it relaxes me to watch her, happily birdfishing in the sun. And the birds don’t mind, truly they don’t. They sometimes sneak in while she’s sleeping, but otherwise they wait for her to amble off, or they swoop up to the feeder on the deck.

It isn’t like Olive isn’t working to support herself, mind you. I’ve had two baby snakes delivered to the doorstep this week alone. Soon it will be lizards and frogs.

Just no birds.

Olive thinks she might bring in a bird. She hopes she will.

Like, if maybe one could hop down and oblige her by standing still long enough for her to wake up and pounce.

Comments

2 responses to “Olive Guards the Birdfeeder”

  1. Girlboxing Avatar
    Girlboxing

    Great, great post!

    Of course, having a city-kitty means birdwatching of an entirely different sort.
    Our Mimi has only two flavors from our avenue facing apartment in Brooklyn with nary a tree in sight: pigeons and seagulls. Oh and not to forget, she also has the poor approximation for birdies that are her fly-through-air toys.

    I suppose that watching a cat, watch a pigeon on the windowsill is one of those perverse schadenfreude experiences. There’s the kitty, calling, gesticulating and otherwise crying to get at the feathered morsels, but no, there’s a window, then a screen followed by the window guard and that poor-thing moment of perverse glee (bad pet owner).

    Oh well, with Mimi, I fly feathering things through the air that she leaps and leaps to catch, only to be thwarted, Sylvester-like; though when she does catch it, she seems oddly dissatisfied, as if it is really on the chase that she is interested in after all. And, like your Olive, my city-kitty does her job, catching the occasional mouse that finds there way in through our walls, and my how proud she stands when she presents me with your catch.

    Reply
    1. Lisa Creech Bledsoe Avatar
      Lisa Creech Bledsoe

      It’s SO true, isn’t it, that they don’t seem all that interested once they catch the toy.

      Olive has a “Wubba” — a purple clutch of feathers on a string — that we flutter in the air for her. She loves it dearly, or rather she loves to chase it. If she catches it she wrests it away from us and carries it off and (inexplicably) drops it in her water bowl. It’s the chase that interests her, not the conquest.

      I just don’t see her doing much chasing out by the feeder. 🙂

      As for your Mimi (what a lovely name!), I rather imagine she enjoys city life and wouldn’t trade it for Olive’s sleepy suburb. But wouldn’t they have fun visiting each other’s worlds!

      Olive hereby invites Miss Mimi (and her entourage) to visit any time. Plenty of birds, snakes, frogs, and mouses for both!

      Reply

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