Katie's Kitty

Check it out -- a different title!!
:-)

Rachel, Matt, Nathan, and Katie are with Magser right now. There're only supposed to be four at a time in ICU, so Gary and I are fixing some supper. Well, Gary's cooking, and I'm blogging. How's that for a spoiled woman?

The cat Katie got for her 13th birthday cannot, of course, go live with Katie and Nathan, locked indoors in an apartment. We got her from Pastor's family because their original cat was a really good hunter. When Athena was just a wee ball of fluff, just a little beyond being an attractive and tempting snack herself for the red-tail hawks that temporarily took up residence on our patio swing, she was already beginning to catch her own meat. When her whole body still fit into our hands, she dragged home an opossum and ate it up. Not all in one sitting: we found the tail, which she later went back and finished off when she had done some digesting and found a spare nook in her tummy.

She is now 6 1/2 yrs old, and slowing down. She's getting to be middle-aged, and I can empathize with her slower and quieter ways. But sometimes she just gets too darn lazy. I caught two mice last week. Granted, I think that's all there were; we hear no more scuffling in the basement ceiling and find no other evidence of mice anymore. But, c'mon, she's only got one job to do, and she ain't been pulling her weight.

Last week, we had a rabbit in the yard. A rabbit! Now, personally, I kinda like watching cute little rabbits, so long as there is nothing gardenish for them to be destroying. So it was okay with me that there was a rabbit -- although my approval of having a rabbit in the yard would have changed tremendously by March. But what must the cat be thinking? Leaving mice in the house? Letting a rabbit take up residence in our yard? Good grief. Almost makes me consider indulging Andrew's repeated requests for his own kitten.

Then something odd happened. On Thanksgiving, Athena was not underfoot. She loves turkey. She adores turkey. If she hears "here kitty kitty" from a quarter mile away when there's been turkey smell wafting through the kitchen, she'll be there momentarily! And she wasn't hanging around Thursday. Surely something was amiss.

Well, I think it is possible that she was full. Maybe she didn't want to mess with the indoor mice (who have so many nice little hiding spots that she can't access) because of the plethora of outdoor mice.

Sunday night, she was sitting on the porch ledge, giving herself a bath. Maggie was concerned about the blood on her nose. As we were checking it out, Maggie caught sight of the rabbit. A big rabbit. A big rabbit with about half its head missing. Right next to the front stoop. Eeeeuuuuwww -- lovely!

She wouldn't come in. She had dragged that rabbit up to the house to protect it. She has lost critters before. Sometimes we rude humans take the prey and toss it in the field, away from the house, to avoid the flies and smell and other contamination of her hunting. I really don't want to step barefooted on a half-eaten critter as I'm taking the trash out. So we sometimes rid the yard of her snacks. But I suspect that she has also lost her prey to coyotes, neighbor cats, skunks, weasels, and other wildlife. Once she dragged a woodchuck into the garage and left it at the kitchen door; it was safe there. (Blech!) This time she stashed her rabbit by the house, under the porch light, near the door where we big humans come and go frequently, AND she stood guard all night.

She kept eating. Who needs dry cat food when you have nice bunny brains? The kids were getting a bit of a lesson in mammal anatomy, as every time they passed through the front door, new portions of innards were exposed. Thing is, it is a FAT rabbit. She is going to be good and stuffed by the time she spends several days working her way through that thing. I hope she does a good job of clearing it up before we get home from the hospital.

Well, Gary says hamburgers are ready. Gotta go so we can get back to ICU.