Cats, Mice, Birds and Me

For APR this week the prompt is ‘what do you overlook!’  I adore my three cats, but there is a feature of their makeup that sends shivers down my spine.  They have an inherent cruelness when it comes to bird’s mice, butterflies, in fact, anything that has wings and that is smaller than them. 

   

Several weeks ago I did a series of drawings about my cat Bro, two of them are suitable for today – Bro in bird hunting mode!

Bro and Lucy are hunters and take every opportunity to hunt, they know I don’t like it and have stopped bringing the live birds inside.  You see they don’t kill them, they play with them.  If the bird dies of shock Lucy will play with the body for hours, Bro starts to pluck them of their feathers!  I have only just realized that he is expecting me to roast it for him. The other day I was putting a chicken in the oven for roasting and he materialized out of nowhere as cats do.  He gave his little squawk that he makes when he has a bird in his clutches.  He loves chicken and will sit in the kitchen till it is cooked and given some choice morsels! 

Zena on the other hand prefers to hunt mice, birds bore her, and she will yawn when Lucy and Bro are playing with a bird.  But a mouse sends her into frenzy.  Unfortunately, she is a lousy huntress, unlike her namesake, and has to rely on Lucy and Bro to bring them to her for games.  

One thing I am pleased about is that they finally have realized that hunting native birds is a definite no no.  I suspect that it because they realize that is the birds run rings around them, the wax eyes dart about just out of reach and the fantails tease them by flying very close and then hover just above them, laughing I suspect!  

The picture below is a picture I did in honour of the games that my cats play, the thing I I have to overlook as I love them to pieces.

Linking to The Artist’s Play Room