Can We Talk 2

The View From My Door Today

Prompt: Look out your front window or door and describe the weather. If there are animals or birds visible, how are they acting?

         Looking out my back door, I see a gray sky and leafless trees with a few evergreens. There is no silence, but the chirping of busy birds and the chattering of squirrels. My presence there has run them off for the time being. It's very cool, borderline cold. In the distance I hear the traffic noise. Over my neighbor's field, above the trees I see birds flapping their wings. I know they are large birds because of the distance from me.

         Now these flapping birds soar towards me, no longer flapping, but gliding over the corner of my yard, towards another neighbor. They are so high above the tree tops, which are pretty tall, and the wing span is huge. Just as I suspected, not crows, but turkey buzzards. There must be a small prey somewhere urging them on. There is something majestic and peaceful about the gliding. But I know they survive on road kill and violent deaths of small animals. Something of the chill and the bleakness of the day suits them.

         Oddly, I don't see the stray black cat that I've been feeding for two years. He usually runs up from nowhere to beg when I step out. I have to find a way to trap him and carry him without him drawing my blood to the local SPCA, which will neuter him and do all the other things for worms, rabies, and fleas at no charge. But I have to pick him up and bring him back. I'm a little afraid of a feral cat. I bleed easily. But he does rub against my ankles when I feed him, and lets me rub his head only. He still acts afraid of me most of the time. So I have to be careful. That's a bleak job, too.