Even though I have had cats for a long time, I very rarely have had to rescue birds from my cats. There has been the odd occasion, and for a while I had bells on the cats’ collars, only to discover that cats are quite capable of not ringing any of the bells when they’re in hunting mode. One of my cats had six bells on his, and not a sound did he make, as he stalked. Fortunately however, the birds were mostly faster than the cats.
Some of the birds that we have around here, are a reasonable size, and have very strong looking beaks. None of my cats have ever wanted to take on a magpie for example. Except for Bilbo, our tiny cat, who wasn’t much bigger than the mapgies in any case. Magpies are fairly clever birds, and they knew that this cat was a sausage short of a barbecue in the size department, and they used to lead him a merry dance. Bilbo of course considered himself a mighty hunter, and took it upon himself to catch one of the magpies. From time to time, there would be several of them alight in one of the fruit trees. Bilbo would climb the tree and the magpies would wait until he was almost to their branch, and fly to the next tree. Bilbo would patiently climb down, and go to the next tree and repeat the performance. The magpies would fly back to the first tree. Bilbo would get down again and also go back to the first tree, and start climbing again. This would go on and on till either the magpies or Bilbo got sick of it….and it was usually Bilbo. He never caught a magpie…
Max also considered himself a mighty hunter, and it was actually a bit easier for him, seeing he was a normal sized cat. In fact he was a big cat. This particular day he was in our apple tree stalking a little bird, who was sitting on the edge of the branch, seemingly oblivious to the fact his life was in danger. I thought I had to do something, so I picked up an apple that had fallen from the tree, and threw it at Max. Now I am the worst shot in the world. If I throw something, it never goes where I aim. So I thought, if I throw the apple at Max, it might hit the branch and frighten him off. Imagine my surprise (and Max’s…) when the apple hit him! Not only did it hit him, it knocked him off the branch! There he was, hanging onto the branch with his front legs, looking very alarmed, and trying as hard as he could to get his back legs back on top of the branch. Oh for a video camera! Of course the bird flew away in the kafuffle, and Max, once he had found his footing, left very hurriedly, his dignity ruffled……
Mamaroo's Diary 