Baby Birds and Trashcans

Awwwwwwwwww. Take a deep breath. Do you smell that? Yep. It’s the smell of spring. Spring is in the air! Do you know how I can tell? We have three little green tomatoes coming out on our tomato plants, there are a bunch of tiny red buds on our rosebushes that are getting ready to bloom and there are baby bird guts and legs on our back step. Yep. The cat is eating the baby birds and their mommas ain’t happy. Oh those momma birds just scream and holler at him. They follow him all over the neighborhood. They sit and wait for him when he comes in the house. The swoop down and peck his back and tail. They have even swooped down at us for being too close to him.

This morning I went outside and I could hear them in the tree beside our driveway. I was under the carport and couldn’t see them. So I walked out and looked up and there sits our cat on a branch up in the tree. The birds are sitting there right beside him throwing a fit. He sees me and shimmies down the tree to come in for breakfast. Even though he shouldn’t have been too hungry after the ‘snack’ the apparently just had based on the reminants that were left. Or maybe I should say the lack thereof.

Now before you all go getting on to me for letting my cat out to kill these poor innocent babies, let me say he was an outdoor stray when we found him and an outdoor cat he will always be. There is no keeping him in the house if he wants out. He will sit at the backdoor and stretch up on his hind legs and paw at the doorknob to let us know when he is ready to go. If we don’t let him when he ready, he gets mad and will growl at us when we go to pet him. He will tear down the window shades to let you know he is ready to go out. He comes in long enough to eat. We refer to it as “refueling". Then he is gone again.

Last weekend our church had a garage sale to help raise money to send to another country so that a school could have a well to be dug so they can have clean drinking water. The church said that anything would be accepted. I told my mom about it and she commented that she had a bunch of stuff she would like to put in it. Well, since Hubby isn’t working, she paid him to go to her house and pick up the stuff in his truck.

One of the items that she had was this old, old rusty bicycle. It was in such bad shape that Hubby and I opted to leave it at home and throw it away. We were too embarrassed to take it. That bicycle was so bad that we had it sitting out by the curb all week and no one has even bothered to steal it.

Wednesdays are our normal trash pick up days and Thursdays are the day when they pick up large items and bagged leaves. This morning I heard the truck coming up the street. I had hoped that they would even take the darn thing. I was scared that they might think that some poor kid had left it by the street and leave it there.

As I went out to get in the car to go to work this morning, Hubby walked out with me. I looked over and I said, “Oh good! They picked up that bike!” Then it hit me. When I came home from work last night I had noticed that our trashcans were laying on top of the bike. So I looked at him and I said, “Did they take our trashcans too?” He laughed and said, “I didn’t pick them up.” as he went to look around the side of the house where we usually keep them. He came back laughing and shaking his head, "They took'em. They're gone."

Now that is sad when your garbage cans are mistaken for trash! I mean they weren’t new, but come on! Talk about kicking a man when he is down. Hubby is still unemployed and that was not on our list of things we needed to buy this weekend!