After a fairly disastrous trip home this evening, eventually ending up with me getting in at about 2-30, I arrived to find a liberal dosing of feathers in the hallway and kitchen. It seemed reasonable to assume that my little furry ball of evil carnivorousness aka Talisker the cat, had decided to snack upon small crunchie birdy today.
Whilst vacuuming up the feathers, I suddenly realised that I was not alone, which was the reason why Talisker hadn't high tailed it, as he normally does when the vacuum comes out.
Somehow he had managed to bring a live adult pigeon into the house through the cat flap, and hadn't managed to dispatch it. Presumably it had been managing to avoid him for gods know how long.
So, I chucked him out the front door and proceeded to try and catch the bird. It was obviously still able to fly, but eventually I managed to trap it under a bucket, and with a quick swap, let Talisker back into the house, and put the bird in the front garden.
I don't know how injured it was, or whether it can still fly very well, but I've locked Talisker in (he's still got his litter tray, so he won't explode), and hopefully the bird will recover from shock enough to fly away eventually. If it doesn't, I'm afraid nature will probably take it's course either by one of the other local cats, or the fairly plentiful urban foxes.
I almost wish Talisker was a bit more efficient, and had dispatched the Pigeon, it's unusual for him to bring live prey back, he doesn't seem to be one of those cats who brings you live animals, since you are clearly incompetent to catch prey yourself. In the past he has always kept his captures to himself, so I think he fluffed it this time.
He's very clingy at the moment, and is wandering around the bedroom, which is very unusual for him, he normally prefers to sleep downstairs when I'm asleep, and only sleep upstairs when I'm up and about downstairs. I think he was a bit flumoxed by the pigeon, and possibly even felt a bit put upon by it fighting back, and not letting him kill and eat it.
Cats are wonderful creatures...
