How Much English Does She Understand, Exactly?

[akirlu]

Last weekend, I think it was, after finding not one but two dead sparrows in my office -- one in the closet and later another one under my recliner -- I told Tinka that I wished she would stop killing birds and stick to mammals. (There was a bumper crop of sparrows this year, and for a while Tinka was killing a fledgling every other day or so. She eats them after they've been displayed, so they don't go to waste, but still.)

A couple of days later, Hal found a dead rodent at the bottom of my closet. We finally got the hint at that, and began leaving the closet door shut. Then last night I was summoned from my bed by Hal asking for some paper towels. Tinka had just come in the window to bring him a fresh rat (also deceased, thankfully). Tinka also hasn't brought in any birds that I've found since I complained about the whole birds versus mammals thing. Makes a person wonder.

She still isn't taking my suggestion to kill the damn' squirrels, but I'm grateful if she's switched from birds to rats. Maybe she can do something about the mole under the big apple tree.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Wow; mammal is an awfully abstract concept. On the other hand, if she just stopped hunting flying things, that would tend to lead to mammals coming home, and that's not quite so scary.

Rats are a great thing to kill -- and rather big for cats, generally, to handle, too. Hope she doesn't get hurt.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It wasn't a very big rat, just way too big to be a mouse. Tinka has killed larger things, most notably, a young rabbit. That was some years back, now. She's actually managed a squirrel once, too. But on the whole, killing rats is probably sufficient.