Got up this morning and, as is part of my usual routine, bent down to scoop up yesterday's clothes to put them in the washing basket... while I'm writing this, I have to ask myself why I don't put them in the washing basket when I take them off, as the washing basket is just a basket (no lid) and it sits on the floor against the wall, right next to where I drop my clothes at night.... when I spotted something on my jumper. It looked like an animal turd.
I didn't have my specs on, so I'm quite used to such confusions and things turning out to be benign. My jumper was inside out, so it wasn't something that had been on my jumper when I took it off. I couldn't believe that the cats would have pooed inside the house (not unless very unwell, and they had seemed fine when they came to wake us up this morning).
Closer inspection, I saw some blood. I was a bit concerned now, bloody stools is not a good thing. But it wasn't a turd. Perhaps it was a mouse? We sometimes get mouse entrails although not often left on discarded clothes I got a bit of tissue (handily tossed on the floor from some packaging that I hadn't cleared up from yesterday.... I'm not always this slovenly, honestly.... and pushed it round. And then I saw what it was.
It looks like a bird embryo. I'm assuming it was a newly hatched chick, although it looked more like an almost fuly formed embryo. Bloody cats!!
I know and accept that hunting is part of their nature. It took me many, many years to get to this point of acceptance. When they catch mice, we always rescue the living ones and set them free well away from where the cats can get them. On the occasions that we get a dead mouse (or remnants of) then I'm very sad for the poor thing, but I recognise that it was one of a large brood, and there are many broods a year. When it's a baby bird though.... I find it very hard to accept.
We will keep a watch on the cats and see if we can work out where it came from. In a previous year, we cut out part of a tree which the cat was using to reach a nest, and I will do the same again if it will help.
