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| Barred owl (Strix varia) |
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| Eastern rat snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) |
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Alarming Additions to the Life List
I have two new sightings to report. Both of them alarmed my human, but they looked intriguing to me, especially when viewed from the opposite side of a good window.
My human tried to say that her concern about the first one (owl) was only on behalf of my housemates and me. That may have been just an excuse, but maybe it was true--she took special care to make sure none of us stayed out on the deck after the humans went inside. We tried not to be too insulted: what cat is afraid of a bird?
As for the second one (snake), this time it really was my human who was alarmed. The startled shriek she gave when she saw it was the giveaway. Granted, these types of legless creatures are not normally found in bushes in my experience--and apparently not in hers either. I am not completely sure of the identification of this one (the leaves were in the way), but I think it's a young one, which explains the crosshatched coloration.
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Thera, this is perhaps a sensitive subject, but I am interested in hearing whether you felt any kind of deep-seated instinctual response upon observing the snake. Many of your feline relatives have been the unfortunate victims of pranks by humans involving a certain snaky-looking green vegetable (which I hesitate to even mention here should it evoke any distressing reaction). Or conversely, given her response to the snake, has your human displayed an aversion to any green vegetables?
ReplyDeleteAh yes, those vegetables. I've heard of those pranks, but my humans have not been rude enough to play them on me. In general, I avoid vegetables because they are boring, but I'd be interested if any feline readers have different experiences to share in this regard. My human displays an aversion to turnips and red cabbage, but surely that is not connected to snakes. I'll try to find out what the story is there.
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