04 October 2009

The Princess and The Squirrel

I looked out the window yesterday afternoon to a rather surprising sight. There was a squirrel eating spilled birdseed from the bird feeder, completely unaware that Princess was less than two feet away from him, behind the sack of sunflower seeds. Princess watched the squirrel intently, and I kept expecting her to pounce, but she seemed to be waiting for something. As far as I can tell, she was waiting for the squirrel to notice her and run. So either she wasn't interested in catching the squirrel—she only wanted to chase it—or she doesn't quite get how one actually would go about catching something. I'm really not sure which.

What makes it even funnier is that Dovienya passed about eight feet behind the squirrel, and he turned to keep a close eye on her, completely unaware of the cat much, much closer to him. After about five minutes, he finally noticed Princess, and scurried up the clothesline pole. Then when I went out to get the cats back in, he used the distraction to make a mad dash for the elm tree. Princess scampered after him and up the tree, finally getting her wish to chase him. I don't feel like going to the trouble of putting a caption on it, but if I did, it would be "Run, dammit! I want to chase you!"

Note that the picture was taken through a window and its screen, so it's a wonder it turned out as well as it did. This is after Princess had worked her way out from behind the sack:

2 comments:

Fibonacci said...

Someone told me about their cat that caught a squirrel, got bit by the squirrel, and stopped chasing squirrels.

Qalmlea said...

Yeah, Dovienya seems to have no interest at all in squirrels, possibly for a similar reason. I've also seen Pouncer stare at a squirrel that was actually within striking range, seeming not to know what to do if it wasn't running. So maybe my cats don't want to catch them, or fight them, but just like the chasing? *shrugs*