Another Bird in the House and Kitty Cat Funeral

We moved the standing bird feeder to the front yard in the hopes that Buddy wouldn't be able to catch another bird, but we did leave the hanging bird feeder in the tree so that we can still watch birds from the comfort of our couch. Unfortunately we may have to move that one too, because the fat, kind of dumb doves aren't fast enough to keep out of Buddy's reach.

Early this morning, just about 7:30, I'm on the couch having my coffee and catching up on the news on GMA, and here comes Buddy with a bird in his mouth through the doggy door. I jump up and yell for Keith, who is still sleeping, run down the hall to close the bedroom and bathroom doors, run back in the living room to see what Buddy is doing with the bird, and what Buddy is doing with the bird is hiding in the kitchen behind the island, and then taking it through the doggy door into the garage.

So, I slide the cover to the doggy door on and Keith's phone is ringing while he is running around with me, and it's his work so he has to run back to answer it, and in the meantime I go out into the garage to open the big door so that if the bird is still alive it can fly away. It is indeed still alive, up on some wood on the shelf, Buddy down below trying to get to it, and fortunately it flew out the door, none the worse for wear apparently.

Some other bird in the front yard wasn't so lucky but it wasn't Buddy's fault this time.

Millie was barking at the window even earlier than Buddy was catching the bird this morning, and I look out to see Bad Black Cat sitting in the yard in a position that made me think he was getting ready to take a poop so I yell at him to chase him off and then see a pile of something in the yard, which upon further investigation turned out to be a whole lot of bird feathers. No bird left, just some bloody feathers, so I'm guessing the cat had quite the breakfast this morning.

Keith gave Lucy a funeral worthy of a human yesterday, he dug a deep hole and lined it with gravel and paper towels, we had thought about wrapping her in her blanket, but it is synthetic and we didn't want anything down there that wouldn't decompose. He laid Lucy out and washed her fur and cleaned all of the dirt off of her, sobbing the entire time, said his goodbyes to her and then covered her up with  more paper towels and gravel and then filled in her grave. He planted a shrub over her, one of a couple of plants that he bought a few weeks ago and still hadn't gotten in the ground. A shrub that is fittingly enough called Pink Breath Of Heaven which should bloom pink flowers in late spring or earl summer. We are also going to order a little memorial garden stone for her.

We talked a little bit about when the rest of the animals start to go, which is inevitable, but they will probably die from natural causes and instead of burying their bodies we will probably cremate them and bury the ashes.

It was a hard day for him yesterday, but he certainly gave her a good send off.