Ooooouuut

Well, another quiet (as in, still trying not to talk) day here minding the ol' homestead, and

Um...

Ok, sorry in advance for any weird typos, but apparently it's necessary for me to have a cat in my lap just now.

I guess that means that today's post will be about Max. Would have made sense to have a pointless photo of Max in that case, but I've already uploaded the grape leaves so they're staying.

Anyway, Max. Max has been very affectionate today. On my lap right at the moment, in the bed this morning... and yesterday he slept on the chair behind me whenever I was down at the computer. It would all be very touching, if there wasn't so obviously an agenda.

Max, you see, hasn't been out in two days.

Max wants me to know this.

Max is definitely a cat with a one-track mind. Max wants to go out. And Max wants to go out. And you know what? Max wants to go out.

Will he? I'm not sure. The last time I had him out I thought he may have ended my father's wren problem (the problem would be the singing, which starts awfully darned early in the morning). He obviously didn't, since I can hear the wren even as I type, but that only means it was something else that he caught. I didn't get a very good look at the bird -- I managed to get him off of it fairly quickly, and it flew away -- but I would imagine that it didn't have much of a chance even though it didn't get chewed on. Between the stress of being pinned and the fact that a cat's mouth is a bacterial wonderland, it wouldn't surprise me if that poor bird didn't last much longer despite the fact that it got away.

Max the great grey hunter. Man, the cat's fast. He had that bird down before we were even off of the patio. I hadn't even seen a bird, but that cat was already on top of it. Can you imagine what damage he'd be causing if we just let him roam free?

Actually, that brings up a really sore point with me. It's been mentioned here before, but what the hell. This blog is nothing if not circular. Anyway, I have a real beef with people who just let their cats roam. We used to do it when I was a kid, but honestly? In those days no one thought much about it. We know better now. Roaming isn't good for wildlife, isn't good for the neighbourhood, and isn't good for the cat. Anyone who says a cat needs to be allowed to roam is just plain wrong. Period. A cat can be happy staying completely indoors, or can be trained to a leash (like Max and Penny are) if you're desperate to give them some fresh air. As I mentioned above, though, even a leash isn't perfect if you want to protect the local birds. As for the "happiness" of free-range cats? Well, how happy would you be if your lifestyle led to drastically increased chances of injury and disease as well as a much shorter life span? That's what roaming really does for cats.

Ah well. Max eventually gave up on my lap and moved to the cat tree, so I thought I may as well grab the camera and show you his hidey-hole. Cute little blood-thirsty predator, don't you think?

And he'd really like to go out.

You know, just in case you wondered.