Field of Science

Trying to be good, but birdies were in the bush

Our kitty girls have been trying to be very, very good.  Things like sleeping together on Mrs. Phactor without playing biffy games in the middle of the night, and not eating each other's food, at least while a food referee is present, helping with wrapping paper and ribbons, and not bolting out the door as soon as it is opened, especially when cold air and snow blows into their faces.  These are cats after all, so the behavior bar can not be set too high.  Now to prevent idle paws and boredom, the best winter entertainment is Cat-TV, the ongoing show just out side our windows produced by squirrels and birds hanging out at all the feeders.  So much is going on, so much movement, and all of it just out of the reach of cat paws.  A thistle feeder hangs from a balcony railing just outside the sunroom windows, and since it only has 4 feeding stations instead of the 40 or so that it really needs, the waiting line forms a few feet away in a tall rhododendron leaning right up against the windows on the lee side of the house.  The broad window sills make for a good perch for birdy watching, right there at the end of their noses, so close that you'd just bet that if you jumped up there real fast you could grab one of those birds.  So what were those glass candle sticks doing there anyway?  Did you just move them there from the mantle to make room for decorations because we never noticed them there before.  So you know we didn't mean to; it just happened.  And probably it wouldn't have made any difference anyways, so it was just an innocent little mistake.  And does it matter if we take a ribbon or two from packages for some play?  After all nobody else has been playing with them ever since you wrapped that gift up. 
Ah well, keeping breakable things in safe locations is our part of the "we'll be good" program. 

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Just a bit of experience here - "4 feeding stations instead of the 40 or so that it really needs" - you are probably good keeping it to four.

If you have more, the rate at which the little buggers consumes that seed increases (I swear) exponentially.

Save your pocketbook. Keep it to four ports.

The Phytophactor said...

Yes, that is a good point about providing it and they will come. Some our best friends live out in the country and they like the hummingbirds, so they put up a feeder, and it was emptied so fast, they put up another. Now they have a 2 quarts of "nectar" per day habit. You know how many hummingbirds the size of you little finger it takes to consume that much "nectar"?