27/09/2025

A while back, a conclave of juvenile cardinals was making my side yard their pit stop. Still in their androgynous stage, I don’t have the expertise to sex them. Their coats were patchy and their movements unsure. My Olive and I watched them together, me almost on my tiptoes for the best view and her sitting on the countertop with her paws in the mesh. I had hoped they would stay, so I could see some of them grow up. But I haven’t seen them since. It may have been the sudden drop in temperature, but I believe it was the sparrows. A couple of years back, they drove out a female robin by continuously knocking her eggs out of the nest. But my suspicions are closer to scandalmonger gossip than known fact.

25/09/2025

On the main street back home, I met an orange tabby cat named Henry. He was lying next to the fence that surrounds the school yard, basking in the sun. A colony of ants had made his eyes their distribution centre, and were hurrying beneath the fence to-and-fro. He had a firm sort of body, leaning a tad bigger than what might have been healthy. People have been told to keep their cats indoors due to the recent coyote attacks. Expansion of the city has driven them in, scrounging through trash and picking up the occasional cat or small dog. Henry didn't have any visible bite marks, and no blood was visible. He most likely went out the traditional way, a car or maybe a truck.