I arrived home from work this evening to see the tell tale signs of a problem I detest. There were a number of feathers strewn across my front lawn. After I'd parked the car and dropped my briefcase into the hall, I went for a look round. Sure enough, I found what I'd expected ... a headless, well mutilated body of a pigeon.
Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to witness the activities of a pair of pigeons from their courtship, through their intimate moments, nest building, egg hatching and finally first flights of the fledglings. The pigeons always hang out on pairs and I was acutely aware of this pigeons mate standing forlornly in the middle of our drive looking lost. As I cleared up the remains, the lone pigeon sat quietly on a nearby fence ... still ... watching. What was going through it's mind?
I know what was going through my mind!!! If I knew which of my neighbours had allowed their cat to exercise it's natural instincts in my garden, I would have taken the mutilated corpse back to the neighbour and told them to shove it where the sun doesn't shine!!!
My apologies to any of my followers who are cat owners, but I am seething right now. So much so that when I sat down a few hours later to pickup my sketch pad and pen, there was only one thing on my mind.
I can sympathise with you John. We had a neighbour's cat coming into our garden looking for birds (why don't they hunt in their own gardens?). Strangely, we don't see it so much since we got a dog!
ReplyDeleteMy aunt had a solution for the cat that tried to get the blackbirds in her garden: she hid in her summerhouse with a water-pistol! Not very practical perhaps, but very satisfying!
Poor forlorn pigeon. You captured him well in your sketch.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have the cat problem, because of our jack russell. she has a penchant for chasing the littler furries!
ahh too sad. You have captured the solitude of the pidgeon in your drawing.
ReplyDeleteMy parent's dog doesn't allow cats in their garden, so luckily this is not a problem I've seen there. In the ME there are lots of strays but yuo mainly see them in the bins and not eating any stray birds.
Thank you all for stopping by and commenting. When we still had a dog this wasn't a problem.
ReplyDeleteA friend installed pop-up sprinklers in his lawn and then decided to fix his cat problem with a few strategically placed sensors. It was great fun to watch a cat stroll nonchalantly across his lawn, and then the sudden panic as the sprinklers popped up. LOL.
Oh John - I can't believe that as sad as it is, your sketch made me literally laugh out loud! I have a feeling that you and my Dad would get on very well!
ReplyDeleteI am also with you on the whole cat thing. If I had to own one it would be wearing a cow bell! We have a pair of big fat Wood-Pigeons that are completely in love and have been in our garden since we have been here. I'd be so upset if that happened to one of them :0(
Sandra, I'm going to place a few decoy pigeons around my property. Each one stuffed with Semtex and a vibration sensor. ;-)
ReplyDeleteTo all who've commented, I can report that the lone Pigeon mourn's no more ... the bloody cat got him to this afternoon!!!
ReplyDeleteLove the stuffed pigeon idea, lol! Can't believe the cat got the other one too! Maybe it was pigeon suicide! Poor thing :0( You need a dog!
ReplyDeleteA very sad sketch John, and some plain speaking too!
ReplyDeleteWe regularly have to run out into the back garden to chase cats away from the bird feeders - it's annoying when you don't have a cat yourself.
You're right Frank, it's very annoying. Sorry about the plain speaking but this makes me so cross!!! It's not the first time and won't be the last, but I'll never accept it.
ReplyDeleteHello John, I saw you mentioned on Sandra Busby's blog and thought I'd stop by. I don't like cats....and that's that. Great drawing you did. Have a wonderful day!
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