Our cats are being especially weird. Is it the weather?
They want in and out, together and separately, a dozen times a day. They start in at 7 a.m. If I’m late they complain loudly with tails swinging. They exit by the back door and come in the front and when the weather is cold they make the trip so fast I don’t know how they’ve had time for anything in between. When it’s snowing they come in wet and head for my bed to dry out. The older cat has always been skittish and hesitates before going through the door either way. That is annoying.
The younger cat has never grown up and has fits of activity, running, rolling, walking over keyboards. One day recently he got into an upper cupboard and found the catnip. He opened the bag, spilled catnip all over the floor and was rolling in it when I found him. He was nuts all day and I’m sure he had a hangover.
Both cats are good hunters. Unfortunately they like birds. One day last week one of my Mountain Ash trees was attacked by a cloud of birds (waxwings?) There must have been a hundred of them. They’d swoop in, en masse, sending snow flying off the branches. After a good pig out on berries they’d fly away (to work it off?) then swarm back a few minutes later. After a while eight crows came along and chased them away. They played this game several times, taking turns in the tree. There didn’t seem to be any hard feelings. By the time they all left, the branches were bare of berries and snow, and there were dead leaves scattered all over the yard. It was quite a show.
I wouldn’t let the cats out. They were not happy about that. They sat on the windowsill watching, salivating, and twitching their tails.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.