Sheri’s Cafe

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."

OutTV: Frankenbird

This evening we had a strange bird on OutTV. It kind of looked like a dove but with a tiny head surrounded by a huge neck. And it was too dark. And its wings were weird.

A fledgling, I am almost certain. But a fledgling what?

I also think there’s a good chance it was injured and has recovered in some horrible, misshapen way.

What I know for sure is that Kitten Thunder and I watched it for half an hour while it napped on the window sill. And when it jumped down to the ground we all hunkered down so it wouldn’t see us. The lonesome dove picked on it for a little while before the dove decided to head for the rooftops.

And then it was gone. I hope to see it again when it is a little less fledge-y so I can figure out what he is.

In the meantime, Obi is approaching all channels of OutTV low and slow. He’s NOT a big fan of the horror shows.

***

To add to the trauma of the evening, Obi did something loud in the basement. I was there watching TV when it happened. But I don’t know what, exactly, happened. It was loud. I heard glass. I involved a whole bunch of fur flying and ended with Obi cowering under the spare room bed for half an hour.

But here’s the thing: I can find anything out of place behind where I was sitting that might be a cause for all that noise.

And Obi thinks it is my fault. Whatever it was.

Whatever.