We had just finished dinner. Cheese and spinach-stuffed ravioli (Costco, not homemade), a nice tossed salad with avocado and anchovies, a couple of glasses of red wine. I took my empty plate over to the sink, rinsed, put it in the dishwasher. As I did, Ms. Annie wandered into the kitchen. She’d been outside for an hour or so, and I was glad to see her back in the house.
I probably said something to her. Something like, “Hello, Ms. Annie, where have you been?” She looked up, waiting politely while I poured a little cat food into her dish. As she sat down to take a few bites, I looked back towards the table. And that’s when I saw Annie had delivered a special treat. A large, freshly dispatched rat, dropped on the floor about two feet from the dining table. Not even nibbled on. Annie seemed quite proud of it. I had a different reaction. When Meda saw the look on my face, she looked down, took in the scene. Buried her face in her hands. I grabbed a camera.
Then I had to top off the meal by picking up said rat and carrying it out to the back yard, where I disposed of the remains in the jungle down below.
I wouldn’t recommend this as a way to follow a good meal, but try explaining that to Ms. Annie!
In any case, I carefully cropped the photo to exclude the fresh kill, which was just out of the foreground in front of the table.
Meanwhile, today’s Friday Felines include seven of the eight cats. I somehow missed Duke, so his photo will wait till next week.
–>See all of today’s Friday Felines!
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aaahahahaaa! kitty showing her appreciation to Daddy!
I wanted to view the picture of the gift to see how big that rodent is.
I’m with MT; Meda’s reaction would be placed in context if the “present” was visible in the shot. Maybe you could link to it so those that want, can, and those that don’t want, can avoid.
This is why my wife and I have never installed cat doors. You never know what the cat will drag in. This was reaffirmed when one of the cats brought a bird alive and bleeding profusely on to our back porch. The flapping bird splashed blood all over the steps, porch and walls. It looked like a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Imagine what that would have done to the inside of the house. Even though our cat population topped out at seven a few years ago, now down to four, and requires a lot of door opening, we prefer to maintain control of what comes in and out. Even so we have to check before we step out lest we put a foot into the disemboweled remains of some poor creature left on the door mat.
The up side is that neither us or our neighbors have a rat problem. So, give Ms Annie a scratch behind the ears and a couple of extra slurps of tuna juice for a job well done.
You’re right. No rat issues around here!
Ian! Not “issues” — problems. Don’t make me come over there and whack you with my grammar stick.
I feel bad for the birdie Raleigh wrote about, and even worse for laughing at the first few sentences of his post. Great imagery! And I agree — the photo would be improved by the inclusion of the victim, although Meda’s reaction is priceless either way.
From the Merriam-Webster dictionary, online version:
Issue (2) : concern, problem
#6–
a : a matter that is in dispute between two or more parties b (1) : a vital or unsettled matter
The dictionary’s wrong (she said, smugly).
“Meda’s reaction would be placed in context if the “present” was visible in the shot. Maybe you could link to it so those that want, can, and those that don’t want, can avoid.”
or we want our money back dammit!
Okay. Start anticipating next week’s Feline Friday!
Boo! Why edit out the rat? That’s the main selling point of the picture! Without it, it just looks like your wife is really disappointed with your cooking…