Jealousy

     Humans know what jealousy means.  It really needs no definition.  Animals don't know our meaning of it.  But yet, they display it frequently.  I have four inside cats that I rescued when kittens.  Mother cat abandoned them in my garage.  I don't know why she did it.  But it became up to us (my son and I) to take care of them.  It will be four years this October that the four came to live with us.  At first, we closed the garage and allowed them to live there.  The three females were spayed and the one male neutered.  The plans from the start were to release them outside when we thought they could take care of themselves.  But becoming attached to them would eventually find us moving them into the house with us. 
     Before all this came about, we frequently went into the garage to play with them.  When they got tired, they climbed upon our chest and went to sleep.  Three of them did this.  The fourth one, who was a runt and named Runt, never did this though.  She started out sick and required a heating pad for warmth.  She constantly laid on the heating pad.  What they all learned in that garage, they brought with them into the house.  Runt sleeps alone.  The other three still do that climbing on the chest and going off to sleep.  They are no longer kittens, but weigh now 17 to 20 pounds apiece.  They do get heavy. 
     One cat is lying in a better place than another.  Up jumps Bugs who runs My-a off.  Was that cat getting more love?  He now lies in the exact spot that My-a once did.  On another occasion, Blossom seeks my attention and is lying on me.  Up jumps My-a who runs Blossom off. 
     "I'm hungry," Runt meows for food.  Here comes the other three meowing and pushing Runt aside to gain the attention.  Everyone of the four are meowing now in their attempt to gain all my attention.  Since I don't work, I see the antics of these cats all day long.  In their eyes, I am an important part of their lives.  They all want me......How blessed can a person be to have all that love?  I can only explain their behavior as jealousy.  They are showing a human emotion.  My son laughs it off by saying, "You're their mother."  Actually, I am.  My son and I are the only humans they have known.  We love them and they know it.  They love us and we know it.  I try not to show any favoritism.  I practice loving them all four the same........It is hard though to show no favoritism.  I do have my favorite as I think all mothers do. 

Swooping

     I don't have a bird feeder out for the birds.  The neighbor next door has one.  I see birds gather around and eat from it.  I haven't put one out since I have stray cats that come to eat.  But in a sense, perhaps I do have a bird feeder after all.  The cat food I put out has a habit of feeding different animals.  I put the food up at night in hopes of keeping opossum and raccoons away.  But forgetting sometimes to put it up, they come.  I know they came as I leave water out.  The water left not drank is always so dirty.  Cats don't do this.  In the daytime, I hope the food is safe and will become only the food for cats.  But this is not always the case. 
     When weather is permissible, I love to sit out on the back patio and watch cats eat.  They come and eat with me there.  Since they have learned me, they don't run away like they did at first.  Now as I watch, birds are coming also.  Down they are swooping to eat from the cat food.  Are they so hungry to have a meal that they risk becoming a meal?  Most of the cats continue to eat as if they don't see.  But in the corner sits the female cat, Likes 'Em Green.  She's a cat that has been known to bring mice, birds, and other small creatures for her kittens to eat.  Even Slappy, a young male, has finished eating cat food.  He now is watching the birds.  It is part of the cycle of life that the bird is the prey and the cat is the predator.  Likes 'Em Green is now jumping towards the birds.  They fly off!  Soon all the cats have full bellies.  They wander off to wash and nap.  The birds are not finished.  Here they come again swooping down and eating cat food.  They are not hindered by me.  I continue to sit on the patio watching this amazing work of nature. 
     If anything is learned from all of this, it is that I don't need a bird feeder.  I already have one.  As long as food for the strays is put out, it will be eaten.  Maybe not by a stray cat, but some animal including the bird will eat from it.  It becomes obvious to me the bird is not about to stop swooping down as long as food lies beneath his wings.