Patti lives in a pretty house with several cats and her nice husband. Every cat has a big personality and one will not cohabit, so he is king of the garage. Every day Patti puts all the other cats in their room and brings Kiwi out to play. Kiwi has green eyes and is Jan’s bud.
Kiwi on one of my scrappy quilts
Some of the kitties escaped to wander the world one day. What to do? Cats do not take to calling or herding, we all know. Quick as a wink Patti turned on the sprinklers and appeared at the back door saying “Danger! Danger! Danger!" They all know now Danger! means get back to Patti as fast as you can.
Of course she feeds all the wildlife. Every bird. Every rodent. God forbid a chipmunk or a squirrel perish if Patti can help it. I could not put her deer in that last sentence, as they are ruminates. And, as they can start higher and eat my rose bushes to the ground, and then eat the roots, I suppose they need a separate sentence. I will not mention we have too many in our neighborhood.
We live with a lot of trees, many of them oaks. The acorns peppering onto the deck caught Patti’s attention one year. “Acorns! Acorns!” There are no oaks in her yard. She took home a big bag to feed her charges. She came back for more. As we had visiting grandchildren that weekend, closer to the ground, we sent them to gather a bushel of acorns for Patti.
She keeps them in the freezer (kills bugs, she says), and doles out a measure year round to her coterie. I have a mental picture of Bambi’s woodsy friends shyly approaching.
Grandchildren have been available the last several years for Patti’s acorn harvest. This morning Jan and I were on the deck and a breeze brought down a bonanza. Instinctively we started picking them up. I went in and got a container. Half an hour later we looked at each other. Who’s nuts?
Sharing the wealth, that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteOur dear old Nicky cats previous owner told us the secret to get Nick to come. Just yell "FISH" and he will come..but you had better have some for him.