Decisions

The Old Woman and I use to have this discussion about why she doesn't like having pets . . . because she feels that it would lead to her needing to be a vegetarian. Her thought process was that if you know that animals have thoughts, feelings, and personalities, how could you eat them? I suppose she's right. However, critters are also highly capable of contradictory behaviors. I have plenty of pets and fully acknowledge that they have thoughts and feelings and personalities . . . and I eat meat on a regular basis. I guess the line in my little brain is that I don't have pigs or chickens or cows, thus don't have to think too deeply about THEIR thoughts, feelings, or personalities. Just be glad I'm not politician who is promoting tougher laws about prostitution or the defense of marriage with that line of reasoning.

Anyway, I had this lovely example of how critters have thoughts. (I totally went around my arse to get to my elbow on that one, didn't I?) This morning, as I was shaking the food cup to alert the freeloader cats/kittens to come eat (and be head counted), I noticed that one of the kittens (about 5 months old) had killed his first bird . . . a thrasher. This bird was about 1/2 the size of the kitten. The kill had attracted the interest of an adult cat freeloader (Bingo). The kitten was not in the mood to share his prize, so he picked it up in his mouth and headed to the fence. He very clearly wanted to duck under the fence and away from Bingo . . . but the bird was too large for him to scoot under the fence. He attempted it a couple times. Then he looked up and down the fence to see if there were a better access point. By this time, he'd attracted the interest of the other kittens. So, he picked up his trophy and headed under a car.

I just need to remember to look to see if it's still there before we have to remove it from Chester's jaws later tonight.