Lori, of Thunder sitting fame, has a boarder. A cat named Goblin that came to live with her while his people were in Europe. Have I mentioned that Lori is full of awesome sauce? But, tomorrow, Goblin and his people are headed to Florida on a plane.
I won’t even go into how bad I think a plane ride with a cat would be.
Lori and Goblin’s relationship started out a little rocky. He talks. A lot. She has a dog. But eventually they got used to each other and Lori taught him a whole bunch of new habits like eating junk food (I can’t remember if it was dry or canned food he didn’t eat when he got here) and going out.
A couple weeks ago, when I was in charge of Goblin sitting, I was warned about his new habit of bringing…offerings. Kristin, Lori’s roommate, mentioned that mice often showed up at Lori’s door. And, while Lori was away, Goblin had brought Kristin…well…squirrel bits. A bit here. A bit there. A bloody head at her door.
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to cleaning up bits. As it happened, I never saw Goblin that weekend. He was eating the food I left him but mostly he stayed outside enjoying the finally warm weather. A with no one to bring offerings, there were none to clean up.
Sensing, I think, that his time with Lori was drawing to an end, Goblin brought the ultimate gift this morning: a magic bunny.
She heard something under the couch and – since she is NOT a fan of squirrels – enlisted her nephew to help her. She roused him from a deep possible-only-as-a-teenager type slumber. Together, they lifted the couch and found the bunny huddled in the back corner.
Lori turned her back for just a second to keep Goblin from getting the rabbit. Her nephew never looked away. And yet, the bunny disappeared. In a blink of a bleary 18-year-old’s eye.
“Maybe he was a magic bunny.”
Unfortunately, magic bunnies get caught if they don’t magic themselves out of the house. Goblin found him in the office a little while later. No worries! Lori rescued the rabbit and set him free.
And Goblin spent the day locked inside to make sure he catches his plane tomorrow.
Bon voyage, Gobbles.
As I was contemplating this post, it reminded me of a night a couple months ago. The Boy and I were walking home from downtown. As we neared our house, we saw a big ol’ raccoon lumbering down the sidewalk. He got to the corner we were walking toward and gave us a look before disappearing down the drain in the gutter.
I’ve seen this happen before. Actually, I’ve seen this with a much bigger raccoon that kicked in the air when his belly got stuck in the drain and he had to suck in to get the rest of the way down. But on this particular night, what followed the raccoon was most interesting.
A little orange tabby was strolling behind the raccoon to make sure it left his territory. Not chasing, just quietly intimidating.
The cat walked up to the corner, looked down in the grate, then turned and strolled back from where he’d come. He paused just long enough to give us a look. “No worries, folks, the neighborhood is clear.”
Now, do you think his Girl ever wakes up to a raccoon at her bedroom door?
Kitten Thunder: Life lessons and cat tales 
Haha! Yesterday Kit was mouse hunting in the garden and at one point I heaved her off the poor mousie and into the house. When I did this I saw something in the mouse that all species display.
The mouse had fallen onto it’s back and it’s stomach was exposed it screeched at Kit to stop. I heaved kit off it to discover this terrified creature staring up at it’s doom.
The same way a victim would in a movie, and it really got to me. My cats eat the mice they catch which makes me feel better about their hunting. I can’t stop them hunting since we live on a wood and the undergrowth is ripe with critters. But I do wish they would stop. It’s such an unfair hunt and so traumatic for the mousie. I feel guilty every time I see her with a mouse, I’ve tried trapping her and freeing the mouse but she finds it so it ends up dead anyway. Think I just have to leave her with her hunting, she doesn’t do it to be cruel, but playing with the mouse is so cruel.
As long as they kill and eat them, I wouldn’t feel too bad. It is their nature. Kitten Thunder isn’t allowed to torture anything. Once they hurt a bug, they have to kill it. I don’t know how, but they understand that rule.
I once saw a squirrel realize he was going to be hit by a car. He flattened himself on the road and covered his eyes with his hands. I’m happy to say the car missed him. But I see that squirrel realizing his own mortality EVERY single time I see a squirrel run into the road.