in which Buttons attempts to teach me to hunt

[ewt]

My morning pre-breakfast reading of LJ was interrupted by a bird shrieking, loudly, in the house.

It didn't take long to find out that the shrieking was the bird that Buttons had brought in from outside; poor thing was still alive and Buttons was bringing it to me.

Maybe he and Neil think I just don't like rodents?

I shouted at him not to bring it upstairs (because, yeah, giving commands to a cat always works), then shamefully went and hid in the bedroom for a minute or two.

I'll have to wipe up the blood from the front hallway. I've followed some drips and found where Buttons hid the bird, as well, and it shouldn't be too difficult to move the chair to get at the carcass, but I am going to wait until pfy is awake to deal with it; it looks like a "you hold the newspaper, and I'll move the shovel" sort of job. The bird is some sort of thrush, I think, it's hard to tell in its current position. I'm glad it isn't one of the woodpigeons.

I probably can't let the dog inside until I've cleaned up the dead bird.

In the meantime Buttons is prancing about the house with feathers stuck on his paws looking VERY smug.

Not much to be done about this, really. Last year Buttons defended us from all sorts of things (as described in this comment), this year he seems to have moved on to chasing things that actually move. And if some of the birds suffer, at least the rats and mice don't stand a chance, and that's a GOOD thing with all the feed around (although it is generally in well-sealed containers blah blah blah).


I can kindof understand why the escaped rabbit doesn't want to come home, you know? Never mind; time to do other animal chores and fix myself some breakfast.

Comments

[rillaith.livejournal.com]

Blah blah inc: It's anture, birds sufering is part of how it *works*, if they didn't have predators they'd rule the earth, etc, etc. You know it all already, I'm sure.

Anyway, tip for clearing up dead bodies without having to touch them... A few sheets of kitchen towel, or better something a little bigger like newspaper, and just roll the body into it: put the paper over the top and bring the far edge down to the floor and back towards it, then roll the whole thing away from you and it self-wraps.. Then you only need to carry the kitchen towel by the ends and don't need to touch the contents even through the paper. (And it's a lot simpler than a shovel.) If you have a carrier bag with you too even better, it can go straight in, tie the top in a knot, and it's "just another bag of rubbish".

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

It's anture, birds sufering is part of how it *works*, if they didn't have predators they'd rule the earth, etc, etc.

*nognognog*

And thanks for the advice re: cleaning. The remains aren't entirely in one nice discrete lump, so I'm not sure how well it will work, but newspaper definitely figures in my plans anyway.

Any tips on getting blood out of a wooden floor?

[rillaith.livejournal.com]

Lots of scrubbing wuith detergent, as soon as possible. Brush rather than cloth, so it goes into the grain. Hope really hard that it was well varnished.

[rillaith.livejournal.com]

In fact, you may just want to try to grit your teeth and go for it with kitchen towel or smallified newspaper, just to get it out of the way, rather than staining the floor. I find f you put the paper over it and then gather it up, it's not nearly so bad as trying to flick it onto paper. Trust me on this one *laugh* Apparently the visuals are most of the worst of it!!