Late yesterday evening I sat at the dining table with the laptop, checking email before going to bed. The catflap made it’s “clunk clunk” noise heralding the arrival of one of our cats back into the house, and I glanced up.
One of the cats carefully deposited a feathered black lump in the middle of the kitchen floor, and sat down next to it, cleaning his feet. I smiled.
“W… go and look in the kitchen”
W got up, wandered across the lounge to the kitchen door with a frown on her face, and looked around the corner. Mr Very Proud Cat Indeed picked the bird up like lightning, made a dash for the catflap with it, and raced off into the darkness.
We both laughed, and didn’t think any more of it.
This morning at about 6:45am the girls were already up and about, and wandered downstairs to make breakfast. After a few moments they re-appeared in our bedroom doorway. Our youngest explained;
“There bits of bird all over hallway, and kitchen”
“What do you mean, bits of bird?”
“Cat has hurt bird all over hallway - it everywhere”
Oh crap…
We wandered downstairs and discovered it wasn’t quite as bad as we had imagined. The blackbird was back in the house, in the middle of the kitchen, but it was at least in one piece. It’s feathers were however sprinkled in a pretty even carpet across most of the kitchen floor, and most of the hallway. The cats must have been playing with it for hours - dragging it around, attacking it, flinging it in the air… like the title says, a “Carnival of Death”.
Just remember next time a cat jumps on your lap for a fuss - they’re actually a cold blooded, merderous little monster, no matter how cute they might try to look.