It rained. Then it snowed. then it snowed more and I realized that summer was probably over and autumn had left us standing at the gate long ago. The rising sun is now moving slowly back across the heavens in a widening arc, one day, a few degrees at a time.
Every morning now I see Charlie on the porch on his favorite spot, keeping a careful eye on the varying groups of turkeys that march by; sometimes a half dozen, sometimes, like this morning, well over three dozen, in a long line, searching the snow for anything edible. After they leave he comes in. They've never in three or four years, used the part of the driveway that he marked off as His Property. I suspect it's become a turkey Legend, the way generations of deer once freaked out at the sight of a small white cat cheerfully galloping toward them. It was years before they learned to ignore any cat they saw at any distance.
You kind of wonder how the word is passed along, about the cats, and why they pose such a threat...
Christmas this year was just an extra day, spent emptying a closet and hunting for an elusive (to be polite) smell which turned out to be from an upstairs drain. No there will not be film at 11. =) The closet needed hoeing out anyway, so it's no wasted effort.
Burnt a brush pile yesterday, and two more will go today. We have finally obtained permission to burn after sunset (which this year will be coming quite early, right after lunch...) and we just hope no one notices until it's too late to do anything about it. As the saying goes, 'nobody can see you from the road" which gives us a huge amount of leeway and no nosy neighbors...
Got what must have been the most terrifying email this morning, with our local telephone service threatening to cut off our service if we didn't respond to them. Lotta questions, and I suddenly got a strange feeling about how much information they actually needed...when it came to "mother's maiden name" and SS number, and then our Visa card number I thought, this isn't right. Called the company and they said it's a scam, you can ignore it. eeeeeeeee.
I hope and trust everyone had a good if subdued Christmas. it does look as if this could be the norm for quite some time.
Interesting about the cats and the deer. Despite the relative sizes, cats are predators, deer prey animals. I wonder how sheep feel about cats. Though they're more aggressive than deer.
ReplyDeleteExciting Christmas day chez you this year! You sound okay with it, though.
Happy New year you all, including Charlie.
I can't imagine what a small white cat could do to freak out a herd of deer probably 300 yards away.
ReplyDeleteAlbert woke me up one morning when he raced to the foot of the bed to see, for the first time, a herd of deer at the far end of the field. From his point of view they were tiny and possibly new playmates. He leaped off the bed, down the stairs, and out the catdoor. By the time I got to the window he was striding across the yard, not running, but walking very fast.
All the does looked up at the same time as he hurried out to meet them.
Then he began to slow, realizing, I think, that perspective is a thing, and he was about to experience it. Just as he slowed, one of the deer, now definitely alarmed, snorted and stamped her hoof.
without breaking stride or changing his speed, Albert did a perfect U turn and headed back to the house, ears back, through the shed, flap went the cat door, and up the stairs and back on the bed, totally disgusted.
It was years, literally, before the deer would tolerate the sight of any cat, of any color, in their sight. I can't imagine what they must have saw in him that seemed such a threat, but I was deeply impressed by the entire performance...
It was so exciting here on xmas day I had to have a lie down just to recover...I saw a video about that very thing, let me see if I can find it.
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