Hawk - 1, Blue Jay - 0

I'm sitting here all stuffed up with a head cold. Never fails... get on a plane in the winter months and there are germs flying everywhere. I'm too busy to be sick, so I'm just going to ignore all of this cold/runny nose/coughing/sneezing/flu stuff.

Speaking of flying... here's how my morning started out. I was on my way to the the front door to walk Gracie this morning and I heard a smashing sound against the breakfast room windows. I thought another bird had hit the glass, but it was louder than usual. I went to have a look-see, and what is sitting in my backyard right near the deck? That large hawk that I've been seeing out there just about every week now.

And what did the hawk have clutched in his talons? A poor blue jay. The hawk looked at me and just stared. I looked at him and cringed as the poor blue jay tried to escape. The hawk tightened his grip on the poor bird and it was all over. I actually heard the bird's last chirp. The hawk gave me one last look and flew up into the trees. Huge wing-span on that bird. Huge bird, period. I was sure that the hawk out-weighed each of my cats.

Off I went to walk Gracie... my cats were all in the screen-porch, but wanting to get out into the yard to investigate the flurry of blue jay feathers that were left on the lawn by the hawk. When I got back from walking Gracie, I knew I needed an answer to the question that haunted me as I walked around the streets with the dog. Could that hawk carry off one of my cats? AngelBoy in particular, who is as light as a feather, despite his big-fluffy-pouffy appearance.

My neighbor V knows all about the local animals and critters here. She has worked in and taught classes at the near-by nature center, and is a walking encyclopedia about Mother Nature. I found her just coming back from walking her dog, and told her about the hawk.

I told her that I now had a mental picture of AngelBoy being picked up in the talons of a hawk and being carried across Clear Lake. Could that happen? "Survival of the fittest," said she. What????? I told her I needed a real answer. She told me that I should just erect a huge net over my city-girl backyard so not even a moth could bother my cats. She took one look at my face and decided she'd better get serious.

V said that hawks can, have, and will capture birds, mice, squirrels, and rabbits. She hadn't ever heard of a hawk flying off with a cat, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't happen. We were standing on my backyard deck as we had this conversation, and there was AngelBoy, in the screen-porch, looking out at us with his bunny-blue eyes. He sat there all curled up in a tight ball, silky bunny-fur fluffed out and sparkling. I said to V: "Just look at my AngelBoy. What if that hawk up there is near-sighted? Don't you think that AngelBoy would look like a rabbit to a near-sighted hawk?"
She told me I was over-reacting.

Not in my book. I told V that I couldn't live with the "maybe it could happen" theory. She went out into my yard and looked up into the trees. V said that hawks make large nests of sticks and twigs, way high up at the tops of trees. We looked and looked, but didn't see anything other than the leaf-nests of the squirrels. V told me that hawks will hunt not only near their nests, but a good distance away from their home-base. "They usually hunt in the early mornings and late at night," said V.

Fine. No more early-morning outings for AngelBoy. Unless, of course, I can stand in the yard with him, holding a shotgun aimed at the sky. I know for a fact that AngelBoy isn't going to like this decision. He loves going out in the yard right after his breakfast. Sorry, my blue-eyed cat, but that's not going to happen anymore. From now on, I'll wait till noon-time, when the hawks should be sleeping, according to V. I don't let the cats out after dark anymore, because I don't want them near the raccoons and possums that wander into the yard at night. AngelBoy definitely does not like this time of the year when it gets dark at 6:00 in the evening.

Tomorrow morning, I know for a fact that AngelBoy will be standing by the door of the screen-porch, wanting me to open the door for him. I will stand there tomorrow and try to explain to my blue-eyed, bunny-fur cat that this curfew is for his own safety, that I just can't, in all good conscience, let him out till the hawk beds down for a noon-time nap. AngelBoy is going to look at me with a "But why???" look on that little cat face of his.

And I will say what mothers all over the world say to their children: "Because I'm your mother and I said no!" I will have to remember to whisper those words so V can't hear me from her yard next door.... if she hears those words from my mouth, I will never ever hear the end of it.