Top Hunter

I would like to reminisce on a story my best of friends told me last year.

It was a sunny day, they had been packing for their move down to Florida. She took a break to look out the window at the beautiful day and spotted their cat, Tage, in the front yard. As she watched him a warm feeling bloomed inside of her and she sat thinking "aww, he is so cute, I love our cat" a tender smile stretched across her face. "what is he doing??" she wondered as she saw him sinking low in the grass. "silly cat"

and then...then the horrible happened. Tage pounced, fur flew and from the window my friend watched as he clasped a baby bunny between his fatal jaws. She screamed, ran out of the house and tried to stop the murder taking place. She was awe-stricken.

Household cats are one of the best hunters of the animal world. Did you know that? Better than many of their wild cat family members.

This afternoon, after spending a lovely morning at the farmers market and then a nice chat with my sister and mom I worked on making some homemade ciabatta. As I stood at the counter kneading my dough, I heard a startled reaction from JFC. I looked up just in time (hold on a sec...this is, *gulp*, hard for me to write)...

I looked up just in time to see Puss jump back in thru the window holding...holding...a. ....a... RAT in his mouth. Not a mouse...not a bunny...a rat. A rodent a third the size of himself. With its naked horrible rat tail...stiff...but still warm in Puss's mouth.

We reacted poorly. Frantic...wanting the rat out of the house...ASAP. Poor Puss, so proud of himself...as he should be, helping get rid of the demon rats that torment this country...but, well...it was just so unexpected. So startling. You just don't expect your precious little adolescent kitten to jump thru the window holding a rat he just tracked down and killed in the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Now we both feel guilty, wishing we had given him the praise he deserved...instead of flipping out and tossing his "catch" back into the bush. Don't get me wrong, the rat had to get out of the house and would've in a quick matter....but we should've let Puss know he did a good job.

But, I can't help but still shudder. Days like these I miss Little Bit...the simple, lazy, graying minature dachsund back home.