About Hunting At Home And Abroad

 

            “Willie why are you always staring at that little place down there, that teeny tiny little bitty hole?” said Suzy one day when nothing much was happening to divert her attention.
             (I must insert that very old houses sometimes have funny little places in them.)
            “Well, Suzzo sister dear I’m a hunter and I am hunting,” he said.
            “Have you ever caught anything coming out of there?” said she. “I’ve never seen a mouse or even a spider come out.”
            “Not yet!  But it smells right, and I think there is some outside air coming up out of this tiny hole,” he said, squinting into the little opening where the porch addition had been attached to the kitchen many years before.
            “Do you remember that stupid mouse who ran out from under the fridge that time?” said Suzy. “I do mean that literally. That was a stupid mouse.”
            “Yeah, yeah, I do. She didn’t live long did she? Did you know that it’s almost always the girl mice or rats who come out into the open?  I wonder how the guys eat if they don’t forage,” said Willie informationally.
            “Are you worried that the dad mice will starve, Willie?”  Suzy laughed.
            “I just wonder.  Do the females bring food back to them? You know female lions do most of the hunting, like you I suppose.” He sat down by his little hunting place, loaf style, settling in for the long run.
            “Man, if I could just get outside long enough there would be some hunting!” said Suzy rather grimly. “I never got the chance, but I know Toots used to hunt outside and Sammie did too, until it got too dangerous where they are,” said Suzy.
            “While you’re smelling that little place, I think I will ask her about it.”
            Willie’s tail flipped back and forth dismissively, and his gaze never faltered. So Suzy went off to one of her thinking spots, to commune with Toots.
            “Toots, are you there?” Suzy purred as hard as she could. Soon she felt Toots purr in return. The signal was strong and good!
            “I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. I’m here,” said Toots, her gaze never faltered either. Since that Halloween discussion she was keeping her eyes on the street outside just in case. “I finally felt that it was wise to come out of hiding.”
            “Willie’s hunting by smelling a little tiny hole in the house, Toots,” laughed Suzy. “I think it would shock him if a mouse popped out there.  I don’t think he really believes in mice that much!”
            “Well Suzy, he’s a Tom….,” said Toots. “We understand that, right?
            “Do you miss the out-of-doors much Toots,” asked Suzy.
            “Yeah, I do. There was a time, many many times, when I would be silent as death with my eyes open on some lizard or snake as it sat in the sun. I barely breathed, I was so focused on the hunt, the kill!
            Really I’m not sure which was best, the stalking, the outsmarting of the prey or the actual kill. Because if you don’t want to eat the thing, when you kill it the fun is pretty much over. Then there is just a dead lizard at your paws.
            Out there, in the evening or the early morning I felt as if I were a small piece of everything. Not all of it was pleasant, but it was it and it was real. There were real dangers too, Suzy. Some animals I’m just not big enough to conquer or maybe even escape from. There were foxes! I even saw Coyote himself! I sure didn’t want to dance with him!
            But the wind told me stories Suzy. Dry and hot, or damp and stormy, it always had something to say to me, or Sammie.  She was there too. We always knew what was next because of what the wind said.”
            “Oh Toots, I have missed out on so much!” said Suzy, nearly weeping, because though if cats don’t truly weep, they do grieve.
            “But, Suzy, it was love that brought us indoors, we have to remember that. It took a while for me to understand and appreciate that it was love. We are provided for and sheltered and in the long run, we cats love rest, shelter and food. We are even sheltered here from our own random impulses! We love our people too, don’t we? And we are able to add something to their lives. Right? We add love.”
            “If you know it, then I know it, but part of me would like to be out there living the life of the primordial mother cat of all of us, just for a while,” sighed Suzy.
            “We always have that potential Suzy.  It will never leave us.  We are sheathed swords in a sense. But we are still swords! If needed I could catch rabbits and bring them home to him to cook. I would do that,” said Toots. “And in time, I came to see that I was still part of everything right in here!”
            “Alright, that’s better. I can understand that,” said Suzy.
            “I don’t think there is anything around here that anyone would like to cook,” laughed Suzy. “I’m trying to think how they would welcome a dead crow, or seagull, or rodent!  Or maybe a young raccoon! Nope! They wouldn't want that!” She was sort of enjoying a picture in her mind of a stuffed and roasted raccoon!
            “You’re right, they wouldn’t be happy to see that show up on the porch,” giggled Toots.
            “OK, if I don’t talk to you before Crazy Night, hang tough! Be strong! Hide! LOL! Now I’m going to go see if a giant rat has squeezed its way out of that tiny hole Willie is sniffing and that he has dispatched it like the killer he thinks he is!” said Suzy.
            “Alright,” laughed Toots, purring, “I hope we all survive the door banging beggars! Goodnight! Goodnight!”
            With that each cat went back to attending to local business at home as each knew best!