My parents, with their green thumbs, have several blueberry bushes. When the bushes were small they were covered with plastic netting to keep birds out. Because some of the birds were too aggressive, they would try to get in anyway, get caught, and then the net would prevent them from getting out.

Baby loved this. Whenever a bird was caught under the netting, he would crawl under the netting and chase the bird around the blueberry bushes. Someone would have to run outside and open the netting up to let the bird get away.

On one occasion that someone was me. I raised up one side of the netting. The bird was too stupid to realize what I had done. It continued to fly around in a panic under the netting, with the cat in hot pursuit. Eventually it wised up and got away. Baby looked slightly disappointed.

Copyright © Aaron Hirshberg
March 18, 2000