A couple of weeks ago my soul sister and I had just finished a beautiful hike in the mountains.  We decided to go back to her house a grab a HOT cup of tea.

As we sipped from our mugs my friend was enthusiastically showing me the new “super sonic” bird feeder her children had given her for Christmas.  She explained with much excitement how this glass and steel contraption was so much better for the birds in terms of keeping them safe from other animals that might like to access the feeder (like bears).  Did I mention she backs on to a greenbelt?

Having two cats myself, and knowing that my friend has a couple of rent-a-cats that come by often for meals and love I asked:  “What do the cats  think of the bird feeder?”

“Oh, we haven’t seen much of them lately – so I don’t know.”  A few minutes later there was a neighborhood cat, named Java, at the glass balcony door eyeing up the bird feeder.

My friend first spoke eloquently about how beautiful Java was (he is a gorgeous and big cat) and then opened the door and tried to “shoo” Java away.  Have you ever tried to “shoo” a cat?  It doesn’t work…especially when there is bird feeder and LOTS of little birds flying above its head.  But after several scoldings Java seemed to disappear.

With the birds now safe we sat back down on the couch and resumed our conversation.  My friend remarked on how great it was to have this bird feeder as there now were all these new birds she’d “never seen before” coming by.  In the exact moment those words left her mouth, one of these unusual birds swooped through the sky towards the feeder and WHAMO Java pounced out of nowhere and caught the bird mid-air in his jaws and they both disappeared.

“Well,” I said. “I guess that’s one bird we’ve never seen before and one we’ll never see again.”