There is a cat that roams our neighborhood daily. Personally, I don't like cats roaming around outside in the city, especially when there are leash laws in KC for dogs. It doesn't seem right. I frequently find cat poo in my flower beds and yard, especially around the little purple plum tree we planted in the front. Ick. If they were country cats, I could handle it. Felines are good for farms for various reasons and I can see the logic in it. I'm not a head over heels cat lover like some people, but I do enjoy certain things about them. I was a cat owner until allergies forced me to give them up. Even if I do like things about them, there are also things about cats that I totally dislike. But back to the story... the cat that roams my neighborhood.
We named the roaming gray and white cat "Tom" because he is truly a Tom cat... fearless and bold. He often announces that he is in the neighborhood with loud, long, cat calls and proceeds to walk through everyone's yard as if he owns the joint. Of course, this drives all the neighborhood dogs crazy, as they are fenced in the back yards unable to chase him. He is NOT afraid of dogs at ALL.
My kids enjoyed him because he would come and sit on our front stoop and call out for attention. The kids would go outside and lavishly bestow affection upon this bruiser... that is until he decided he had enough for the day and would turn his tail up in the air and walk away.
One day last week I was straightening up the living room when I noticed "Tom" in the front yard. I thought he was there for his "pets" and so I called the kids. I went outside on the stoop to talk to "Tom", but he was interested in something else. I saw his ears twitching and he was listening to the little scurries of our woodland friend....a chipmunk that is the "Jerry" in our story. We call him "Mr. Chipmunk".
Mr. Chipmunk is not a pest in our yard, he is a welcomed guest. We have enjoyed watching him and his holes were not bothersome. Almost every morning during school, at music time, we would look out the window and see him sitting outside his hole as if he was enjoying the concert. He became a regular fixture to our family, as well as several other "wild pets" we tend to feed and share our yard with.
Tom sat there attentively looking toward the ground for several minutes and then the kids came bounding out the front door... just in time to see Tom pounce and pull Mr. Chipmunk right out of his hole! It all happened so fast, I didn't even know what Tom had done until Moses yelled, "Mom, he caught our chipmunk!" Celeste and Moses were greatly disturbed by the whole thing (they are animal lovers like I am). They told Tom to put him down... and Tom started to run off.. so they chased that cat clear up the hill. Several houses away, Tom ducked under the back fence (which isn't his house, either) and hid under the porch. Mr. Chipmunk became... dinner.
The kids were very disappointed that they couldn't save Mr. Chipmunk. I tried to talk to them about the laws of nature and that Tom was just being a cat, but that didn't seem to console them or the fact that our little chippy was eaten. I agree. There's a certain level of violation that was committed... one I am certain the owners of Tom do not care about, otherwise they would keep their cat indoors! Tom had better be careful. Maybe one day he'll be recognized on the food chain by someone's dog who innocently got loose and decided just to be a dog. I do not wish that upon him, but I know for a fact there are several large dogs, including pit bulls that get out once in awhile! I've been confronted by the pit bull while walking my own dog. Scary stuff.
The kid have vowed never to pet that "dumb old cat" ever again and pledged to chase him out of our yard if ever he dares to place a paw on our property again.
One last note, we had several baby birds in the burning bush out front that were very loud last week. Just a few days ago, we noticed that they are all gone. Undoubtedly, they were too tiny to fly. We wondered where they went. Now I have a sneaky suspicion that Tom put them in his belly.
