Someone's nose is out of joint

Hi there. The other day Holly had her say and today it’s my turn. My name is Mickey and as you can see, I’m a tuxedo cat.

Holly’s nose is still a little out of joint because she wasn’t allowed out on the balcony to (possibly) catch one of the baby finches. In the meantime, the situation hasn’t improved. All five finches are gone and she didn’t get any of them.

For a while she had high hopes. Around 6:00 p.m. the parent finches were twittering up a storm. They didn’t just chirp, they sang and made one hell of a noise. It got so loud they actually woke me up, so I went to take a look.

Mama and papa finch were sitting on the balcony netting, but instead of flying in to feed the remaining two babies, they stayed there. I didn’t understand a word they were saying, but it sounded like they were encouraging the babies to come out of the nest.

Sure enough, one of them popped its head out, hopped on the rim of the nest, spread its wings and … flew right smack into the netting. He fell into the petunias and sat there, dazed, no doubt wondering what the hell happened.

So Dieter went out and talked to the little one. 

At this point Holly joined me by the netting of the balcony door and I knew what she was thinking … he’s gonna catch that bird for me. Yes, yes, yes, oh thank you, thank you, thank you!

Dieter indeed caught the little one, but instead of presenting it to Holly to eat, he set it free. Holly watched the scene with growing alarm … what is he doing? He wouldn’t! He couldn’t! No, no, no, no, no!!! Oh no, there goes my dinner.

Calm down, I told her, it’s after six, in a little while we’ll get our food and from what I’ve seen we’re getting chicken in gravy. Why do you want a bird anyway? You have to catch it, kill it, and before you get to the meat you have to get through the feathers and it’s hell to get those out of your teeth.

How would you know, Holly snapped, you’ve never caught a bird in your life. She had me there. It’s true, I’ve never caught a bird, or anything else for that matter, not even a fly. I’ve been told that I talk too much. You know, that chattering sound cats make when they see something. That’s me, mister chatterbox.

Anyway, after Dieter had released the first baby bird, the second one was gonna give it a go. That one didn’t do much better. He too flew from the nest and landed in the petunias. As Dieter tried to catch him, he fluttered away, only to land in the basil plant. Dieter eventually did catch him and in cupped hands showed the bird to Conny.

That’s where things went wrong. She wanted to take a picture (she wants to take a picture of everything). Not that there was much to see, just a little feathered head poking out of two hands. As she was getting ready to snap the shot, the bird wriggled his way out of Dieter’s hands and escaped. Now the catching could start all over again.

To cut a long story short, Dieter caught the little bugger and set that one free too. Now all the finches were gone. Holly was none too pleased but I’m sure she’ll get over it.

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