Orlando (now nine months old) has been going outside supervised for a few weeks now, and outside stuff (especially good old Mother Nature) is still quite new to him. We've got a bird nest box on the side of the house, which has a family of Great Tits in it, and both cats are fascinated by it. Luckily its out of the way enough that they can't get to it.

Last night I went outside with Orlando to let him have a run round, Shylock came too and proceeded straight up next door's tree to converse with a wood pigeon. Orlando has a play chasing a stick, and then stood on the patio watching the parent Great Tits fly back and forth to the birdbox taking food to the babies. One of the parent birds spotted him and decided he was a threat, so perched on the fence (six foot high) and started to swear at Orlando - this was quite impressive, especially when I noticed that the parent bird was yelling and cussing at Orlando without dropping the worm held in its beak. Orlando stood on the patio and kept looking round nervously at Shylock and myself. His thought process was along this lines of:

(nervousness and volume increasing as the situation progressed)

"'Cuse me, but there's a bird on our fence" - Orlando looking round vaguely at Shylock and I

"Shylock, help, there's a bird on our fence" - looking straight at Shylock in the tree

"Mum, there's a bird on our fence" - now looking at me

"Shylock, what do I do, 'cause there's a bird on our fence!" - looking at Shylock again

"Someone, anyone, there's a bird on our fence" - looking quite nervous now

"HELP ANYONE, THERE'S A BIRD ON OUR FENCE AND ITS SWEARING AT ME - WHAT DO I DO??????" - (looking really nervous now)

Finally the bird got the better of him, and he ran back indoors and refused to come out again. Not bad going for a three inch high bird!

Copyright © Rachel Craddock
May 28, 2008