Cast of Characters
Bobbi: Cantankerous old bird. Bobbi is a 28-year old African Grey with a big voice and even bigger attitude. She tolerates those who feed her, keeps an focused bird-eye on everything that goes on in the house and has a taste for the talons of smaller birds if they make the mistake of entering her cage space.
David: Slightly cross-eyed, half-Siamese teenaged cat with a big heart and somewhat limited intellectual capacity. David has a purr that drowns out passing trucks and a rather un-catlike love for having his tummy rubbed. David is also prone to acting trained (a behavior that embarrasses his co-cat, Alicia to no end) and will jump up on stools on command and roll on his back, effectively playing dead.
Alicia: Street-smart ladylike pound cat with a reserved purr and distinctive thumb on each paw. Also known as Faux-Paw and Little Miss Man-Hands (but only referred to in this manner in private and out of her sensitive hearing range). Alicia is the resident Queen of the Smart Cat World who occasionally forgets the supremacy of Bobbi-The-Bird and addresses the aging parrot with an instinctual and quite un-intentional cat-sees-bird bark.
Buddy: Geriatric (14 year old) rheumy-eyed Dachshund who occasionally visits the Smart Cat World with his handlers and exerts a bit of dog-input in the well-established cat kingdom. Buddy is short in stature but large in presence.
Bird Distraction
We moved Bobbi's cage to another location in the living room for a dinner party and really didn't think much about the impact that action would have on the overall life and times of the Smart Animal Planet. Bobbi loved her new vantage point in the living room and set about to make it her own by flinging her usual collection of peanuts and seeds onto the floor and starting up her cage-top dance (a cover for her checking out the new neighborhood and establishing her dominance on everyone and everything in her new realm.
David was the first to notice Bobbi's new vantage point and carefully made his way across the floor so he could check her out from various angles while still maintaining the cover necessary to avoid her quick eye. He settled to watching her with his back to the living room and his slightly-cross eyed blue eyes fixed on the misplaced cage. Alicia joined him after a while. She had other things to investigate first but then settled in next to her co-cat to oogle the bird and her new perch.
Unbeknownst to either cat was the presence of the visiting Dachshund, Buddy who had taken up residence on one of the living room chairs. Bobbi danced in her cage and shot peanut shells and seeds across the floor to create the necessary level of danger in her surroundings (peanut shells on a hardwood floor have the same effect as a banana peel on a sidewalk). David and Alicia sat with their backs to the living room and their eyes fixed on the bird. Their tails twitched periodically and Alicia struggled to suppress her instinctual kitty-bird bark that she really wanted to let loose. Buddy quietly reclined his arthritic bones on the leather chair and trained his eyes on the cats. The humans in the room carried on their own conversation oblivious to the drama playing out before them.
A very quiet whine started in Buddy's throat but he swallowed it and eased his chin down on his paws, never taking his eyes off the unsuspecting cat backs. Then he could hold it no longer. Buddy let loose with a true to fashion single bark that echoed around the room. This done, he settled his chin back on his front paws, yawned and closed his eyes. His mission was complete. Somewhere in the vicinity of the bird cage two once-idle cats became airborne puffer-fish imitations. In an instant there was little left of their presence in front of the birdcage except rings of flying fur. Loud hissing and yowls accompanied the moment in time when they exited the room in opposite directions, claws scrambling across the floor, and additional fur and spit flying. They were gone. David didn't show up again for days, choosing instead to stay hidden under a bed. Alicia came out sooner but was a very angry cat for a while with nervous tendencies and annoyed behaviors. Buddy stretched and yawned again. He would take his handlers home long before either cat would show itself in public again. Bobbi danced the Happy Dance and settled back into her perch.