A hummingbird’s wing on the mat near the cat food bowls too tardily filled is a morning heartache, as was the tiny squirrel tail weeks ago. “It must have been a baby,” said the neighbor who had lately asked me to trim my brush below in my lower lot that has been a refuge for squirrels. They climb over the wall, across his broad expanse of lawn, to intrude onto his high terrace porch. They dine on his nuts set out for guests. Nibble the flowers in his flower boxes.
I offered him the tail as a gift from my cats, but he flinched and rejected their offering. The means to our ends are not always the choices we would make, but nature bows neither to mercy nor wishes. Things happen that other things may happen after them. Death births progress. Progress sometimes ironically breeds death.
Life is a circle even though our own pursuit of it may be a line—winding or straight, even or jagged. Seen in the great expanse of things, if such things could be seen, a molecular part in the circle that is beyond our imagining.
Too late, I scoop the kibble into their bowls. Take the small tail rejected as an offering and tuck it into an arrangement on my windowsill that it may continue to serve as part of the beauty of this world.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Sad, and I understand~! I have been so upset over that ‘Circus” constructed behind me after my neighbor died and the beautiful place where we shared a large lake and many acres of space, was sold to commercialization. He and I worked together in conservation. What would happen now~?
The first thing they did was advertise their place to come and catch huge Florida Bass in the lake.. “The Lake” extends onto my property and is part of my lake which we stocked it with Florida Bass for years. Now they will quickly be fished out. Also I have for years had a population of about seven, more of less adult deer on my place. This is what it will support without they getting disease which comes from corn in feeders that can cause the disease. Now what, the new place has what amounts to tourist cabins and corn feeders to attract the deer. Instead of loosing deer, the population has doubled from being chased out by people who want to see them in nature and feed them.
One last piece of information. That probably was a young bird and possibly one that may not have lived anyway, except for visiting the of flowers, they like to be up in the trees where they must get the protein of gnats and bugs into their diet~! Life is not living on sweets alone~!
One last thing is that many birds such as cardinals build their nest too close, as low as three feet from the ground. I do not know why, but it makes them prey mostly to feral cats, but my cats have been guilty too. So cutting brush close to the ground can either be helpful or harmful as the case may be..
I am careful that my cats never go hungry, which makes them “fat cats” but happy cats, and the birds they rarely bring home is the nature that inborn into them, they don’t eat them, they bring them to me as gifts, often on my bed after I have retired for the night.
I am learning to live with it but not happy about it~!
SAM
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Yes.. theirs are always presented to me as well, in front of the kitchen or the main door. Sometimes they present them whole, then devour them save for wings, tails, feet and sometimes heads. It makes me feel like some pagan idol.
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Poor squirrel 🐿️
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How fortunate you are able to watch the cycles of nature in this way.
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I am aware of this every day, Janet.
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This is a good lesson for those who overly romanticize nature. This is the reality of it.
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And although we elevate ourselves above it in our thoughts, we are definitely “of” it.
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I am amazed that one of the cats got a hummingbird! Around here they move so fast that the cats and dog barely register their presence.
Our cats have never been allowed to roam free, and are out for regulated tours of duty under close observation. I am grateful that none of them have been bird hunters preferring small rodents and frogs ( the frogs generally get away). The one untrustworthy one was Clancy, AKA the Grey Menace, and he was interested in terrorizing neighborhood dogs and other cats.
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Mine have caught a few lizard tails in the past, but only one whole lizard. The hummingbird was a big surprise to me, as well. I deliberately have most of my flowering plants in my backyard where the cats cannot go due to the dogs, who don’t seem interested in the birds.
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This is prompting me to ask the question in my mind since the earthquake. What is happening?
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