An Iowa Garden

If Birds had proper shoulders, the catbird in the picture would be shrugging them...
Our little black and white cat, P.J., is the sweetest and most inoffensive of cats, but to the catbirds, she's just another cat. Now I'm not saying P.J. is a vegan cat or anything like that; if a bird flew in her mouth, she'd probably eat it, but then again, she might just jump and run the other direction. The only thing I've ever seen her catch was a June bug; we have a double set of cat doors, one going from the house to the attached greenhouse, then another from the greenhouse to the outside. One night we heard the Whap-Whap of the two cat doors, and here came P.J., head held high, with a June bug in her mouth, which she dropped on the floor. I grabbed it, and walked over to the back door and threw it outside... her eyes got big, with an expression of shock on her face, and Whap-Whap, she flew outside, and five minutes later Whap-Whap, back in she trotted with the bug in her mouth. I threw it out again, and she ran back outside, and this time it took ten minutes for her to find the June bug and bring it back... so then I threw it out the front door. Her one effort at hunting animals consists of laying down right next to the hole of the pocket gopher that lives in the lawn under our birdfeeder. P.J. will camp out there by the hour, with her nose basically stuck in the gopher's tunnel opening, but somehow the gopher never obliges by sticking his head up while she's there. Birds she doesn't bother at all. When I'm working out in the garden, she likes to tag along, and snooze in a shady spot next to me while I'm weeding or whatever. Today the catbird started raising a hissy fit, trying all of his usual itinerary, but to no effect... first he tried mewing like a cat, then acting like he had a broken wing, then finally flying down and landing no more than three feet above P.J.'s head and scolding her... nothing. The catbird was incredulous. He then pulled out his last provocation, which was an odd one; he scolded her while holding a piece of dead leaf in his mouth... I guess in the catbird world that must be the ultimate insult, but P.J. just snoozed. I finally took sympathy on the nonplussed catbird, and walked P.J. back to the house, where she hopped up on the counter for a snack of Whiskas shrimp flavored treats, after which she laid down for a nap under the ceiling fan... the sleep of the innocent. I went back out to the garden to finish weeding, and the catbird was still sitting there with his mouth open.