Hoot no more....

We have Two cats: Kitty who rarely leaves her chair in the kitchen, and Sister (of kitty) who loves to be outside during the summer and warm fall to hunt and do things cats do under cover  of dark.

Girl cats are not the roamers that boy cats are.  Girl cats tend to stay within their home area to hunt and play with mice. Sometimes they will spend time with me in the garden, or accompany me on an impromptu walk back to the woods.  Boy cats travel the neighborhoods looking for likely breeding stock and fighting other boy cats that came up with the same idea.  Either way, cats and cars do not mix.  It would be interesting though, to know if  the majority of  dead cats seen on the highway are boys.

Any time there is a furry dead animal on the road, we do a cat head count to make sure it is not one of our two.  A few times when our cats have been unaccounted for, we do a quick scan of the highway to make sure there is no recent fatality thus the setting for this story.....

One late spring morning, we noted something newly dead on the highway.  Closer to the color of kitty and right in front of the house on the shoulder of the road.   Kitty was immediately accounted for. Out we went to investigate.  i was surprised to find  it was a screech owl. Probably hit as it was flying  in hot pursuit of a meal.  i got my gloves on and brought it onto the porch to examine. Might as well take the opportunity to see something up close that was still very beautiful and unique even in death.

country living can be sad, but educational.

screech owl, may 2009

screech owl, May 2009