Indoor hunting!!

Blue Tit. Parus caeruleus

Ditto, having honed her hunting skills over this summer, to such a degree that we have bestowed proudly upon us at least one 'gift' a day seems to have turned her attentions to a less rugged form of sport.

We have tried our best to dissuade her from the attractions of live quarry, she has not one but two bells on her collar, a reflective 'tag' that the maufacturers assure the purchaser is noticed more readily by the unfortunate creature within her sights, though I have my doubts and wherever possible we are seen chasing her like madmen to extract small mammals from her jaws before serious harm is done. We are often successful in this endeavor and are the source of much amusement for our few neighbor's who call us to alert us when they see her 'with prey' and then watch us scooting about after her in a most ungainly manner!

With winter approaching and her dislike of the cold on her paws she has, it seems begun training for a new winter 'game'! Our living room window is very narrow and hinged at the top. It has installed a lock, which enables it to only be open approximately 2 inches, purposely so, in an attempt, as we live on the first floor, to prevent her skydiving in moments of over excitement. Yesterday however she managed somehow to circumnavigate this security measure to some degree. Just as I exited the shower, dripping wet, there was an unearthly commotion from somewhere close by. On investigation, still dripping wet, I came upon Ditto, beside herself with glee, chasing a blue tit around the living room! She had it seems managed to catch it through the 2 inch opening in the window....heaven knows how. The window is recessed from the outside preventing birds flying close to it, we have never seen one land on the sill and even if that was the case the design is such that I just cannot see how she would get any part of her body in such a position as to reach! We are still scratching our heads on that one.

Suffice to say, a scene followed that I am sure to any onlooker would have been hilarious. A most undignified battle began between a naked an wet me, a terrified bird and a much thrilled Ditto!

I am pleased to say that ultimately I was victorious, bird and cat where separated, cat was confined to another room and bird was captured unharmed, if somewhat alarmed, and released safely. I was left with an extremely miffed cat, a living room scattered with small feathers and an array of scratches on my unprotected flesh!

Said cat is now most confused, she can obviously smell 'bird' in 'her house' and is still monitoring the area closely in the hope of further sightings and possible opportunities for indoor hunting!!