Killer Queen

Last summer was the first summer we had Xena; if you recall, she was hugely pregnant at the time and not really in the mood for venturing outside. She started to go outside more and more during the winter, and starting this spring, she has spent the majority of her time outside. She only comes in to eat and to occasionally sleep. Sometimes I worry about her; she came to us already declawed, so I wondered how she might fend off other cats. But so far, she seems to be doing alright. No injuries that I can tell.

Because of her lack of front claws, I really didn't think that she would be very good at hunting, but I was WRONG. She has killed three birds this year already!! She dropped one that was still barely alive on our back patio; Ben had to hit it really hard in the head with a big log to put it out of its misery. Then we found another one that was fully dead in the backyard.

As for the third bird, one day, I was lying on the couch (are you surprised?), and I heard Dylan screaming in the backyard: "XENA! NOOOOOO! XENA!!!!" I could hear him wailing and running, from the backyard to the front, and then to the back, and then to the front. When I finally caught up to him, he was chasing Xena and kicking her. She had a bird that was still barely alive in her mouth. Dyls was so traumatized. Ben got home from work right then and saw what was going on. He told Dyl to let Xena go and finish her business. She must have left the bird as a present for someone else in the neighborhood, because we didn't ever see its remains.

As my nephew, Brock, once sagely said, "Killing things is a cat's job."

It gives me the heebie jeebies to let Xena in sometimes. Like, "What kind of gross dead bird germs are you letting into my house???" I try not to think about it.