How to Mix a Metaphor

Oliver visits to drink from the fish pool, no doubt noticing the tiny fish darting here and there, and storing that information for future reference. Cats are among the most dominant predators in our urban environments, always able to find food.

You don't hear about a food crisis for cats. If they are neglected by their owners, they employ a variety of strategies to get their nutrition:

* They flirt with new human care-takers. No animal is better than a strange cat at persuading us that (s)he is simply so cute that we really should feed him/her.

* They hunt (1). Without humans, rodents could not survive, but thanks to us, rats and mice proliferate in our cities. Whenever they want to, cats silently track these creatures, especially at night, when the rodents move around, just when the cats see, hear and smell them the best. No contest.

* They hunt (2). Fish. Let's just say that few fish are a match for any cat, once they rise to the top of a pond (where most food is located). Swipe!

* They hunt (3). Snakes. We once had a cat, Choicey, in our Mill Valley home, who specialized at catching small snakes, and bringing them to the front door, limp and bitten and scared. She didn't bother eating them, because she was well-fed, so my oldest son carefully tended their wounds, and nurtured them back to health in an empty aquarium, before setting them free. Had she needed the nutrition, however, she would have eaten them.

* They hunt (4). Birds. Cats catch birds by out-smarting them. Choicey waited until foolish birds, drunk on the fermented fruits in our orchard, flew away from a satisfying meal erratically. Using a vertical jump that would make any basketball star envious, she swiped them out of the air with ease, killed, and devoured them.

* They hunt (5). If it comes to it, cats will catch insects, butterflies, or almost anything else that moves.

* They steal. If there is no other alternative, a cat will find its way into some other creature's food supply, including, most easily, a human's. They'll lick butter, tongue up milk, grab a sardine or lox, hell there's lots of human food that a cat will steal, but only when desperate.

There are a lot of people going hungry tonight who could learn a trick or two from cats, but then we would really be living in a dog-eat-dog world eh?