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.