Cat among the Pigeons? Not quite. (a light hearted post)

Thanks for your anecdotes. This particular incident of the Magpie fan club stood out for me because many years ago I had a (ginger!) cat who like nothing better than to proudly present me with a magpie tail feather. No fan club there!!

On a different, less pleasant, tack, I had a dead and well chewed squirrel left in my garden yesterday. One of the local moggies has a squirrel obsession as this must be the fourth such unwanted presents I have been left this summer. Thankfully there have been no Wood Pigeons or Collared Doves recently. They must have wised up to the predator cat and steer well clear.

Now hes much older he doesnt like to stay out.

Our older cat (was about 13 then) he used to go out all the time and come in (mostly) when i called out before i went to bed, so i guess he had made friends over the years with local cats- when it was covid times i found 4 cats(ours& three friends) all sat outside back door all at a safe 'socially distanced' gap together.😸Clever are cats.

Willow500 I love your cat - but at first glance thought they were smoking!

Willow500 ...... What a gorgeous baby!

OMG! I'm absolutely killing myself laughing here! I wish I could have been there to see it!

Magpies eat bugs, so maybe they were thinking of mugging him for the bugs still in his fur!

Very sorry about your daughter's dog and cat BlueBelle.

My little Heinze47 used to share the house with two cats They all used to cuddle up together (they weren’t brought up together) the cats just ‘arrived’ as they did in days before cats and dogs were of high monetary value and considered human
I had an otterman by the bedroom window and the three used to sit there watching for me coming home.
One of my daughters had a dog and a cat, they were such good friends, and when the dog had to be put to sleep recently through cancer and old age, the cat went out as usual and has never been seen since She just never came home although they hunted high and low.
Animals are much more tuned in than we ever realise

My much loved retired greyhound had come to live with me and my cat. It was difficult at first, constant vigilance, but eventually their shared dislike of thunder had them relaxed and close together behind the sofa.

Was this nice boy orange, by any chance? (There is a running joke that all orange cats collectively share a single brain cell that they must take turns accessing. We used to have a very nice orange house lion who was lovely but was several sandwiches short of a picnic. He tried to make friends with a DOG once - she appeared not to know quite what to make of him. It would not have surprised me if he had gotten himself acquainted with birds.)

Jodieb that's a heart wrenching story. So sad. It must have played on your mind for a long time afterwards.
I love birds they are so clever.

Thirdinline I was just thinking the same thing about a children’s book after the story AuntieE posted. Sounds like a wonderful outing in the moonlight.

My Westie used to share a kitchen chair with our cat. Both would sit upright in the sun, waiting for the other to fall asleep and nudge them off the chair. Was hilarious to watch the nodding heads and then sudden straightening up.

Not animals and birds but we did notice some fierce aerial battles earlier this year. Crows and other birds were attacking what we think was a sparrowhawk in the sky above us. The sparrowhawk must have been trying to attack the nests.
The battle seemed quite vicious, it looked as if they were hitting the sparrowhawk's wings in the sky.

Have seen two magpies firmly shoo a fox out of my garden. Later it was lounging while the magpies ignored it, pecking away at lawn.

Lovely stories. Didn't realise any of this. How interesting.

🐱🐦‍⬛👍😻

A few years ago I was in the front room when I heard lots of squawking. I peeped through the blinds and there was a black
bird on the lawn facing me squawking. He did a little jump towards the bush then a jump back to me this happened several times. So, I went outside to check and he flew to the roof still squawking. I knew he was telling me something so I looked under the bush but couldn't see any thing.
In the early hours we were woken by loud screeching so looked out of the window and across the road there was a fox with a blackbird in his mouth and the squawking black bird was dive bombing the fox.

I have always regretted not looking harder for the injured bird but know that first bird was communicating with me.

Years ago the cat next door used to jump over the fence to play in the garden with our spaniel.
He didn't like most cats but was very fond of that one.

We own a piece of woodland behind out house where there is a wooden picnic table by the fence. Our tuxedo cat loves to sit on it and watch the wildlife go by - the magpies are in the trees above him along with all the pigeons, crows etc but neither bothers the other. We also have deer that come through which fascinates him but he's sensible enough not to go near them either. We did have a huge pea hen who would come through every day and sit in the garden - she would intimidate everything in there but she died a few month ago much to his relief as he was frightened of her

@AuntieE you have the content for a children’s book there!

That the magpies don't even properly disappear after his little mock attack, but only flutter into the next tree, I find almost even funnier. Apparently they know this tomcat well enough by now to know that he doesn't suddenly take the game seriously. And he seems to know just as precisely how close he is allowed to get to them.

With your own two cats, after the description, I would probably long have been tempted to find out where they actually disappear to at night. Especially the marmalade-colored brother seems suspicious, after all, with his late homecoming times.

Maybe the tomcat pub really exists and he sits there with the other three or four until after moonset. That his sister seems offended afterward fits excellently with that anyway.

I have two cats that are very friendly with the cat who lives across the road from us.

This neigbouring cat has two or three magpies he plays with in his front garden when he has nothing better to do. The game consists of the magpies coming down onto the ground and walking around about three feet in front of the cat. He ignores them to start off with, then makes a dash towards them, carefully stopping before he reaches them, sometimes they all just stand and stare at each other, before starting round two, at other times the magpies flutter lazily up into the nearest tree.

My own black cat refuses to come in on certain nights when the moon is full. She just sits looking at me, then looks up at the sky, as if to say "The moon is full, I am off to dance with the other black cats, and as you can hear the screech owls are visiting this evening. And no, my brother cannot come, he is not black."

The screech owls normally live 3 or 4 km away, and right enough on the one or two annual occasions where the full moon is bright orange, she comes in early, and her orange marmalade coloured brother stays out, presumably with the three or four other marmalede coloured toms until after the moon has set.

There are many other occasions where he comes home late, and often she looks very put out about it. Neither have answered my enquiries. I would so like to know if the tom cats have their own pub, or a Free Masons' Lodge, They obviously have some activity that is closed to females.

Only yesterday I saw a Magpie on a sheep’s back. Obviously picking off fleas etc. It’s called a symbiotic relationship. Quite common in nature.

The magpies around here used to mob my cat & drive him back into the house - more understandable.
It is mysterious!

Very sweet and very funny and mysterious!