All summer long, I have been getting gifts from the cat. Notice I did not say “my” cat. First, I don’t think anyone truly owns a cat. They simply live in our houses and allow us to do things for them. Second, this is cat that came to live with me during Covid.
The owner of the cat was moving elsewhere in the country and could not take the cat. So the cat was looking for a new place to live. My house was catless at the time, so we volunteered.
During the winter, it was easy to convince the cat to stay inside. She’s not big on snow and cold, so escaping to the outdoors was not something she was trying to do. When the weather warmed up, things changed. Crack open a door and the cat zips out. I try to keep her in, simply because I believe indoor cats are less likely to be injured. In fact, we have kept most of our cats indoors over the years. But when a cat decides it wants out, it will find a way. At least this one does.
So I resigned myself to the fact the cat will try to spend some time outdoors. I can try to stop her, but I am not likely to be overly successful.
Then, the gifts started to appear.
Thankfully, I have seen no birds appear yet. If they did, the cat and I would have to have a long talk, which would probably end with a bell hanging around the neck of the cat. But so far, I haven’t felt the need to ruin her fun.
Because the gifts have been rodents.
I have no issue with rodents outside my house. That’s where they should be. But it seems like pretty much every morning I would find a mouse or a shrew or something waiting for me at the bottom of the back steps. Since these small rodents seemed to have reached their expiry date for some reason, I really don’t mind them being there. Although I would prefer if the cat would put them in the compost bin herself rather than leave that task for me. But she seems to get a bit upset when I just toss them.
The cat seems to be under the impression that she is bringing home snacks. Throwing away perfectly good rodents seems very wasteful to her, and she feels the need to chide me for this.
This morning I found something different. A rat.
I haven’t seen a rat around for some time. I know they probably aren’t far. Rats were a big reason I stopped putting out birdfeeders over the winter. They were not something I wanted to encourage. And with the lack of easily available food, the rats went unseen. I was hoping they were gone.
But this morning the cat brought one home. Now it was my favourite kind of rat. One that is past its expiry date. And I am very happy there is one less in the area. I’m also feeling pretty proud of the cat. Doing her part to rid the area of these pests.
But as nice as it is to have these sorts of things waiting as gifts, could we not go directly to the green bin?
I guess we need more work on the definition of “snack”.
