Bad Kitties!

Having 4 cats in the house lends itself to a certain amount of carnage. Fella, aka Chopper, brings bunnies and other rodents into the living room before he eats them. Mavic has been known to bring in a chipmunk or flying squirrel and release it, alive and terrified in the dining room. She then sits back and watches me try to corral it for a safe release. Merlin has been known to catch smaller rodents, but generally he's good about eating them outside or he leaves them by the steps as an offering. Aries is scared of her own shadow but is fascinated by birds. She won't venture outside without a chaperone and even then only for 10 seconds at a time before bounding back through the open door. She's great entertainment while drinking morning coffee on the front steps. I haven't seen her catch anything yet.

So tonight I got home just before 10. I'd been at the WNBR in Stoughton. I've loaned my Spare to Keith for a bit. He's got a Javelin Tri-specific bike which sucks for the generally hillier training rides. Since it is his only bike he makes do. While he's fairly strong, and makes a mean Dark and Stormy, I felt he might like to try a standard road bike for a bit. After initially setting it up for him, Chris and I rode with him for the 31-ish route. We didn't want to drop him on an unfamiliar bike since it might have a problem or his body might not like it. He did fine and we took some extra time to coach him on a couple of things. He needs to sit in more and recover instead of going off the front until he blows up. He also needs to use the rest of his gears. He gravitates toward either the 53x12 or the 39x25. While I'm a fan of keeping it simple, if you've got the gears back there, you should use a few more of them.

Anyway, I open the door and turn on the dining room light to find Aries on the dining table and Mavic on the floor below. I'm used to the girls having stand-offs and battles, but they weren't looking at each other. I set my bag down and then I hear the sound of wings fluttering next to my head. I turn to see a sparrow doing its best to stay out of reach of the girls. Merlin and Fella are absent. It took me a moment but I gently caught the sparrow. After a close inspection I determined it to be unharmed but terrified. I took a quick picture of it and walked it outside, releasing it. Its talons clung to my finger for a moment, I suspect it was getting its bearings, then it was gone.

I came back inside and the girls were looking at me as if to say "What'd you do that for? We weren't done playing with it yet!" Aries went over to her food bowl and ate her dinner, while Mavic strolled upstairs to the bedroom.

I feel like a parent who has come home from a long weekend, only to find empty beer bottles behind the couch. I don't know who's responsible, but you're all grounded! No canned cat food for tomorrow!

Still, it could have been worse. I could have came home to find what looked like a mid-air collision between birds. I've had that happen more than once.