Bird Watching

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

On a run this week, I saw a friend out looking for his escaped cat. I told him I would look as I ran. That's when I saw this black cat sitting and staring into a tree. I thought maybe he had the other cat cornered so I turned around to see what he was staring at.
This is what I saw.

Someone had conveniently placed a birdhouse in the crook of a tree and the cat was ready the minute the birds thought about emerging.
I laughed when I realized what the cat was doing. I tried to lure him away.
He gave me a look of disgust.

Then went back to his birdwatching.

Furry Visitor

This spring Grace has been walking the dog of a friend who I teach with. The woman has a stress fracture in her leg and can't walk her five-year-old golden retriever. She pays Grace to walk him five days a week. On days when Grace has to work and has swim practice, or during the craziness of graduation, I would sometimes walk him. He's a nice dog and I didn't think twice when she said she needed someone to watch him while she goes on vacation. (She has a husband and an 18-year-old son who are both home but won't help with the dog.)
I agreed to keeping the dog here and didn't think about it again, until I mentioned it to Earl and he said, "I don't want a dog in the house."
That put me in quite a pickle. I felt like I had committed to keep the dog, so I told Grace we would have to brush the dog and clean up dog hair everyday to alleviate the hair situation.
Grace drove his gates and bowls and foods home in the car while I walked him the mile and a half to our house. He got a bath in the backyard and quite a bit of brushing before we let him inside. Here are the clumps of hair we removed from him.

He's a good dog although he has gotten us up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom both nights. I think he sleeps in my friend's bed, so isn't used to being alone at night.
Well, he isn't exactly alone. He has the cats, who, as you can see, feel right at home with him.

Cat Toys

This morning in the dark (yes, it's still dark at 5 a.m. in case anyone wondered) as I put the kettle on for coffee water, I noticed both cats sitting together staring under the refrigerator.
I hate that. I hate when the cats stare at something. Sometimes they'll be staring at me, except not really at me but over my shoulder so then I have to turn around and look. Almost always, there is nothing behind me. Then I wonder if there's something there I can't see!
Anyway, cats sitting together staring under the refrigerator could mean a mouse. I put the water on the stove and rinsed out my press pot for coffee. The cats had shifted. They were both staring at the tile on the kitchen floor and Tupi reached out an occasional big paw to bat at something. Tupi, like Hemingway cats in Key West, Florida, has two extra toes, so his paws are really big.
I turned on the light in the kitchen to see what was fascinating the cats. I leaned over and saw there an innocent little bug. Now I'm no expert on bugs, but this was a little guy who wouldn't have frightened anyone in my house. The bug was about the size of one of Tupi's toes. He was brown and had a kind of shell on his back and a pointy head that looked like a rhinoceros horn. When I later looked him up, I'd say he falls under the category of a stink bug. They're called that because they emit an odor to keep from getting eaten by birds and lizards.
This stink bug no doubt was taking advantage of the warm weather. Since Sunday the weather has been in the high 50s. Earl has had the doors and windows open which fires up the cats' feisty nature anyway.
The cats continued to poke at the stink bug as he made his slow way along the tile.
I put a white napkin on the floor in front of him and he slowly climbed onto it. I took the napkin with the bug out the back door and tried to shake him off into the grass. Apparently, stink bugs have grasping feet because he didn't budge off the napkin. I just lay the napkin in the grass, figuring I'd retrieve it later once the bug had moved on to greener pastures.
Now the cats are staring at me as if I'd stolen their only toy in the house.
Considering that they woke me up at midnight knocking over a pedestal lamp, I think they're pretty lucky to still be in the house.