I put a bird feeder up in June, more for the cats than for me. They really like watching birds, and they have a clear view of the feeder from the west window. I think the birds are interesting, but the cats' reactions to them are far more interesting to me.
And, yes, the cats do try to catch them when they're outside. So far as I know, they've only caught two. One was a starling, who wasn't actually dead when Pouncer brought it into the house, so I had to catch the poor thing and put it back outside. Have you ever heard a starling scream? It's very loud and disturbing. Pouncer brought a smaller sparrow who was dead into the house another time, and got scolded for it. But those are the only two.
Two days ago, though, one seemed to be daring Jilly to catch it. It would sit on the clothesline, looking down at Jilly, and then swoop down just out of reach before flying back up. It did this repeatedly. I have no idea if the bird was really trying to tease Jilly or if there's some non-anthropomorphic explanation, but it was a bit bizarre to watch.
Anyway, I mostly have house finches and house sparrows (aka Parking-Lot Birds; you see them in parking lots around here rather often). There's one that I'm not sure of. It might be a female house sparrow. It might also be a different species of sparrow. It's got a distinct stripe running along its head through its eye. The female house sparrow here has a fainter stripe, and several other species of sparrow also have a stripe. I'll have to see if it/they have any of the other distinctive markings.
For a while, I had some starlings coming as well, but they were more interested in the suet cakes that I put out before putting up the bird feeder. Since they were the only birds I ever saw at the suet cakes, and I'm not a big fan of starlings, I haven't gotten any more of the suet. Admittedly, it was entertaining to see them trying to feed at the feeder; it's sized for finches, and starlings are almost twice as big. Picture a 7 foot basketball player trying to write at an elementary school desk; that's what it looked like when the starlings tried to use the feeder.
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You'd think that I would remember that, if I can't find one of the cats and if I've had the garage open at some point during the day to check the garage in the initial panicked sweep. Last night Jilly didn't come to say good night (or, more accurately, come to demand I pet her before I go to bed), so I started looking for her. She wasn't in any of her favorite sleeping spots. I banged on the upstairs floor, since there are places where the cats can get into the space between upstairs floor and downstairs ceiling, but she still didn't come out. I thought maybe she'd gotten out of the house without me seeing, and wandered outside with a flashlight frantically calling her name. Nothing. Once or twice I'd think I heard a faint 'meow', but then I'd decided I imagined it.
I was convinced that she couldn't possibly be in the garage because I was certain I'd seen her inside the house after I'd shut the garage up again. Now, bear in mind that it was even less likely that she was in the freezer or the refrigerator, and I did look in both of those places. I suspect I was too tired to think clearly. I also suspect that it was Dovienya I'd seen in the house, but only out of the corner of my eye, and that I'd mistaken her for Jilly. So then this morning I woke up, thinking at least somewhat more clearly, and went to check the garage. Yup. There she was. She was probably hungry and thirsty, but otherwise just fine. So now she's happily sleeping in the cat tree.
Meanwhile, I got about four hours of sleep, plus about an hour's nap after I finally found her and could relax. I did not drive to IF for taiji, as I figured there was a greater than 50% chance of my sleep-impairment causing a wreck. When I woke up after the extra hour, it also dawned on me that my car was nearly empty of gas, and I doubt I would have been awake enough to notice it before I left. So if I hadn't caused a wreck, I probably would have run out of gas somewhere in the middle of no where and had to call someone for a ride.
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My water heater died yesterday, in a pool of its own rust-stained water. Two days before, the hot water for my shower had been behaving erratically, like it does when I try to take a shower while the water is running on the garden, but there was no water running. I didn't think much of it at the time. Then last night, I discovered that there was no hot water in the house. At all. I went downstairs to check the water heater. There was a small quantity of water under it, but no other suggestions of a problem.
This morning, the heat coming on woke me up. I'd forgotten to turn it down from the cool-spell yesterday before going to bed. I got up to turn it off, and, since I was up anyway, went to check on the water heater...and this time there was a rather large quantity of water surrounding, and I could hear more water running into it to fail to be heated. The two largest streams of water came from either corner of a panel on the front. I managed to get buckets under the panel, and then tried to find a shut-off valve for the thing. I didn't find it until after breakfast, after scanning the connections diagram from the manual that had been taped to the tank. Then I knew which pipe to hunt down, and it was there, almost buried at the back. It didn't get rid of the water already on the floor, but at least no more would be collecting.
The plumber I called got someone out to look at the thing within a half-hour of my calling. He pronounced the thing dead, told me that if I wanted to switch from electric to natural gas it would more than double the price (as I had no hook-ups or flue), and indicated that the person with the new tank would be coming before noon, probably within the hour. In fact, he got there at about 1:30 pm, or about 4.5 hours after the first visitor. I found this very frustrating. Now, if I'd been told something like "There are three people ahead of you; it probably won't be until noon or so," I would be fine with it. But "within the hour" and "before noon" were both entirely misleading. I could have gone out and gotten some lunch or groceries had I had even a semi-accurate time estimate.
Okay, done ranting. The plumber was a decent enough guy. Somewhat amusingly, I didn't even notice he had a Japanese face until he mentioned his aunt visiting from Japan. When I looked for it, I saw it in his features, but he had a perfectly normal midwestern accent. I had noticed the black hair and not-quite-white skin, but there are so many hispanics in this area that they barely registered.
So, I now have a new water heater and a slightly cleaner (and damper) basement. Since I had to pull it out anyway, I finally got the cats' cheaper climbing tree repaired. It needed the bolts tightened and the rope for the scratching posts rewound and/or replaced. Princess seemed to like having it outside, though: it put her at the perfect height to watch the housefinches flying around the birdfeeder. Oh, when the first guy was there, Jilly was in the basement. She does not like strangers. She climbed into the ceiling and growled the whole time he was there. When the second plumber came, all the cats scrambled outside somewhere until he was gone.
Actually, there had been hints of a problem before this week, but I'd misinterpreted them. There was a little bit of water in the storeroom around both the furnace and the hot water heater. I had figured that the discharge hose from the furnace just had a hole in it and needed to be replaced (for those who don't know, modern furnaces give off water as a byproduct of the heating process). I never got around to it. If I had, I might have found a perfectly intact hose...and turned my suspicions to the water heater a month or so sooner. Ah well. 20-20 hindsight and all that.
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A few weeks ago, Jilly discovered the heating pad. Today, she kept meowing at me. I'd been leaning against the heating pad both for the extra warmth and to work on a sore spot in my back. I pulled the heating pad out and set it where she could get to it. She immediately went over and laid on it. She'd been begging for the heating pad! And now she looks absolutely content. *shakes head*
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