It has become a daily ritual, when I arrive downstairs in the morning, to quickly scan each room to see whether my cats have brought in a bird or mouse during the small hours and left it for dead on the floor. They do work in pairs although work solo too. It has started become a problem that I've been unable to solve, despite taking certain measures to prevent this from happening. Fitting the cats with a collar and bell to alert unsuspecting prey of their presence hasn't worked, as the cats are smart and found various ways of removing the collars so I have given up. Keeping them in during the night makes them cry continuously, howl and claw at the hall carpet.
Satisfied that all was well for there wasn't a dead bird or mouse in sight, I proceeded to check my emails. As I sat, the room was bathed in warm sunlight streaming through the window. Listening to soothing classical music on the radio was such a delight. I heard the cat flap opening slowly and knew it was Alfie. Although the cat flap is an extra large model, Alfie is by no means overweight, he just likes to take his time. Polly, by comparison has a smaller slender body, that enables her to slip through the cat flap quickly.
I observed Alfie drinking from the Miaustore cat water fountain which is located just outside my room door. It is ceramic and holds 3 litres of water and is fitted with a small pump, that enables water to cascade over 3 smaller ceramic tires, each having a platform and tiny spout for the cats to drink from. Pleased that Alfie hadn't brought in a bird or mouse, for it was still early morning I returned to my tasks.
After a few moments elapsed, I heard an almighty commotion coming from my Hi-Fi listening room and wondered what on earth it could be. Immediately I got up and made my way to the room and stood at the threshold watching in complete amazement. Alfie was flipping a dead bird across the floor and running alongside it full of excitement. His tail wagging furiously and back arched as he played with the bird, then suddenly pouncing on it and holding it with both front paws bringing it to a halt as if the thing were alive. As he sat motionless, looking warily from left to right, I quickly took a picture with my phone.
Alfie must have hid the bird somewhere in the room earlier, for that's the only reason I didn't spot it, I will have to look more keenly from now on. In the background, I have had to cover my acoustic wall panels, which are covered in material with anti-scratch plastic to try and prevent the cats from clawing at the material but alas, they still have a go.
My ProAc D28 speakers which are placed either side of my bay window, I have had to keep the covers on and only remove them when I'm listening to music, because one of the cats had put a large dent in the speaker cone. Fortunately, I was able to pull out the dent with suction from a hoover hose. If the speaker cone were damaged, I would have to return the entire box to ProAc which is not something I want to do as it weighs 26 kgs.
Michael
View attachment 55597
Member
