For those of you who are cat owners, this will come as no surprise. One of my cats (Max or Oreo) left us a gift on the back porch on Monday. Can you guess what it was? A woodpecker!

We are assuming Oreo was the one who caught the bird and deposited it on the porch (our main entrance to the house). Aw, and I thought he didn’t care. Oreo has always been the bigger and stronger of the two brothers. He is also the least affectionate. Although he and Max darted into the house whenever given the opportunity during the colder months to cuddle with the kids (the cats live outside and in the garage).

We got the cats last summer and they really didn’t have a change to do much hunting before the birds flew south and everything else hibernated. At the end of the Fall last year, Oreo had caught and eaten several grasshoppers and moths. And, to our delight, killed a mouse and brought it to the porch. Max, on the other hand, had only played with the mouse his brother caught and chased a few moths.

I happened to be the one to find the bird; however, I left it on the porch so the kids would get to see it. For show and tell today, Nicole (3rd Grade) is bringing some feathers she found on the porch after we disposed of the bird! I told her not to touch them so she is bring a rubber glove too! We looked up the bird in our bird book so she can tell her class the kind of woodpecker it was.

The funniest thing was that when I told Shane about it, he said, “I was just complaining about that woodpecker during lunch today!” I guess the cat gave us a gift after all!

Beth