[for referance: MIca and Cleo are both cats, one is my parents and the other their neighbours]
a little wildlife story-
Yesterday afternoon while i was having a cup of tea, a little mouse ran across the terrace. Mica was sitting in front of the window, and notices her as well, and then proceeded to beg to get out for the next while. Eventually i gave in, and she made a dash for the edge of the terrace to see if see could find the mouse, which she did within a few seconds. It took her a little while to get hold of her through he grass and weeds, but eventually she had her in her mouth, and came back on the terrace to do what she does best with captures mice, 'play with them', instead of being a proper cat and killing them and devouring them as an extra nice snack. After a while the activity was noticed by one of the magpies that are nesting next door, and it came to see if this little snack might be something for her. The stand-off now started, with Mica protecting her little toy from the evils of the big bad bird. Mica was crouched over the mouse while the magpie was trying to get to it. The mouse in the mean time had slightly recovered and decided to get away from this power struggle and started moving from the terrace to the front of the house, closely followed by the cat and the bird. When the mouse reached the drive, the second magpie joined in and there now was a plan. They each positioned themselves on either side of Mica, with the intention to draw the cat to one of the birds and give the other one a change to take the mouse.
However Mica is not a silly cat, she would not be drawn to either of the birds, and crouched over the mouse to protect her toy. This lasted for a few minutes with the birds making approaches towards Mica but making sure to stay far enough away not to be taken by surprise. After a while one of the birds got tired of this game and went to look for food somewhere else. The moment the second bird was gone, Mica launched herself at the remaining bird, and made sure to make it clear that no one was going to take her toy away. At which time Cleo walked into the drive, and decided that she would like the mouse as a small snack, so now Mica had to fend off this next tread as well. Unfortunately for the two cats the mouse had now recovered so well that she could actually think again, and instead of just trying to run away over the footpath and the drive decided that finding a place to hide might be in the best interest for her future. So she decided that the pallet with stones sitting in the drive would be a good place to get away from the two cats hissing and blowing at each other.
At this time it was just after nine o?clock, and mummy arrived back from the shop, so instead of following what was happening with the two cats, I decided to run to the kitchen and quickly start dinner. Mummy came in, and dropped her bag on the table, and came into the kitchen. Where she stood for a moment looking out of the window while I was getting the pans on the fire. She then proclaimed; ?Is that a Deer!?
And when I turned to the window, there indeed was a male deer standing right in the middle of the back garden. It was standing still and did not seem to be bothered by us looking out although it was clear that it did see us. When looking closer into the garden, there was a female deer amongst the trees at the back, while trying to grab my camera I started taking shots through the window of the kitchen, then going to the study, all the while the deer stood still and just looked at the house. After a few minutes I decided that it would be better to try to get outside to take pictures, although the light was now fading fast. When we opened the back door, the male deer did not stir, but the female in the back jumped the fence to the empty fields on the left. After some minutes the male went to the back in between the trees, and began nibbling on the fresh leaves, at which time I decided that this was enough, and put on some shoes and chased it out of the garden to protect my precious trees.
I have attached a ?bad? photo, which is actually the best of the lot, just to prove to you that this is indeed not fiction but a true story.
[i'll attempt to upload the picture into my profile now, he's seriously not joking, i recognise the garden. They live in the west of Ireland, not really notorious for its deer population!]