Birds and Cats

My wife and I have two cats. One, Birke, is a textbook mouser. He plays with toy mice every day, sometimes for nearly 15 minutes at a time. When he was younger, I literally watched him play with a single mouse-toy for more than an hour. Like I said, he likes mice.

Our other cat, Pippin, loves to chase bits of paper across the floor, but has shown a real affinity for birds. He's a tad pudgy and doesn't jump as high as he used to, but little winged things really get his attention (he loves the bugs that get into our house as well). Earlier this week, we had a Pine Siskin pigging out at our window feeder - and Pippin was right there:



We keep our cats indoors, but let them outside with a leash and supervision - cats are far too good at catching wildlife to let them out on their own. But apparently, this Siskin didn't care - the cat swatted the glass several times, and the bird just stayed there, eating sunflower seeds. I can feel winter loosening its grip - both on my wife and I, our cats, and the birds. It will be nice to have summer birds at the feeders again. Besides, it will give Pippin something more to watch...