There is a handsome man outside watering my plants. His name is The Boy and Obi thinks he makes for excellent OutTV programming. Much better than “Roofers on the Neighbor’s House” which preempted his afternoon of Thunder Cafe. Roofers are loud and they don’t flutter or peep.
As awesome as Thunder Cafe is, my mother owns the best cafe in the state. Birds come from miles around to eat at Sheri’s Cafe. All sorts of birds…
The cafe is an open feeder that seats about six sparrows and features a variety of cuisine from bird seed to bread crusts. The feeder is mounted on a post on top of a three foot high fence – the fence that used to divide the yard into a cat side and a dog side. Customers at the cafe line up on that fence and wait patiently for their turn.
Excellent OutTV for Spade and Gracie.
On occasion, this programming turns very dramatic. Once in a while, a hawk will hear about Sheri’s Cafe. And for about three days he’ll have easy pickings, swooping down and snatching a waiting customer from the fence. No one really appreciates that the hawk will then sit in the birdbath and pluck his lunch, leaving feathers and the occasional head or leg to remind the world who is top of the food chain.
Hawks on OutTV make the kittens hunker. Down low.
After a couple of days word gets around that Sheri’s Cafe is in a bad neighborhood. The sparrows stop their patronage. After all, they want to eat lunch, not BE lunch.
A few days after that the hawk leaves. No one likes a restaurant where the cook glares at you and the waitress refuses to bring you more chips.
Slowly, very slowly, the cafe starts to get a few customers back. They survive and spread the word that the positive atmosphere of Sheri’s Cafe has returned. And the line on the fence is long once again.
***
Today is my mom’s birthday! Happy birthday, Mom!
Here’s Oliver doing present inspection before these pictures (that’s Spade in them) made their way to her house via special delivery by The Boy as he drove across the state last weekend.
"These are okay. Next time, consider expanding your pallet to include grey, lavender and peach."
Kitten Thunder: Life lessons and cat tales 
Dear Sweet Mama’s Concubine is OBSESSED wih feeding the birds… but only CERTAIN birds, and certainly not the birds that kill the other birds in their yard. Or the squirrels. That woman has a seriously hate-on for squirrels.
I have to say I wasn’t happy with the squirrels just sitting on the fence emptying Thunder Cafe – we found a branch that keeps them from it. But squirrels make good OutTV. For The Girl. Kitten Thunder is over them.
Wow sounds amazing! You should film it some time 🙂
We did get her a flip camera last year…I’ll pass that assignment on.
I love the way you describe your cafe.