birds of a feather...

Atticus is a Tigers fan.

Yes. As in the Detroit Tigers. Baseball.

And yes, Atticus is our cat.

Bill has started calling him "Pocket Panther" because Atticus is a killer bird.

You'll recall the bird funeral?

Well, yesterday I was in the kitchen. I was baking cookies to send along with the sr. high youth on their mission trip. They leave Friday. Just like the bird funeral, I heard quite the ruckus outside. This time I knew it was a blue jay because I've started learning bird calls. The blue jays are quite distinct and loud. I also knew they were upset with our cat. Maybe I understand the bird calls more than the average person.

I'm the bird whisperer.

Anyway, I looked outside to see if I could see the blue jay making all the noise and that was the exact moment that Atticus bounded up to the sliding glass door with a large blue jay clamped in his jaws.

Needless to say, I screamed.

Atticus was proud. He looked more like a peacock in that moment than a killer. This was only the second time Atticus has brought an animal to our doorstep. We hear lots of stories from our friends about the kills that their pets bring them; the "look at me? aren't you proud?" moments that we are happy to not be a part of. And suddenly, on this Tuesday morning, I was a part of it.

I had walked into the living room to get my phone so I could text Bill. This was a blue jay. These birds are not small. They are the bullies of the bird kingdom. No one messes with the blue jays.

We have been waiting for Atticus to be bullied by them. Not the other way around. Certainly, we did not expect Atticus to catch one!

I had just sent the text and was screwing up the courage to walk back into the kitchen when, all of a sudden, the blue jay flew off! Atticus had dropped it and walked a few steps away to sit back and admire his catch. An epic mistake in animal kingdom.

The bird wasn't dead.

It did leave a few feathers behind.

A few minutes later, I heard the screams of a child.

They could have been I'm-having-fun-outside screams. Or, they could have been a-bird-just-fell-out-of-the-air screams.

Detroit beat the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday. Atticus is part tiger, part panther.