She wears a coat one shade darker than the darkest of nights. Her eyes, two glowing green orbs, unblinking in their concentration. Her ears alert to the whispers of whispers. The faintest rustle of a leaf, the smallest twitch of a twig – she misses nothing.
Her teeth, sharp. Her claws more so. She has no qualms over whom her next victim will be. Her body the perfect killing machine.
She wears a coat softer that the softest of clouds. Her eyes, close half way, brimming with love. Her ears perk up whenever we walk by. The laughter of the boys in the next room, tucking them into bed at night, staying, curled up on their chest until they are asleep or the sound of a piece of macaroni and cheese dropping to the floor – she misses nothing.
Birds fear her. Mice run in terror. Squirrels shiver in her presence. She brings us gifts of the dead, once sometimes twice in a day. We have considered dressing her in a silver bell to warn her prey of the black shadow that is her, lurking under a bush or crouching behind a tree, but wonder if it would crush her spirit, the bell of her despair tinkling merrily with her every step.
And then there is Darwin, the general order of things – natural selection and all that. I try to convince myself that she is helping out nature, picking off the slow, distracted, lower- witted creatures. Then she goes and brings me a brown baby bunny and a tiny yellow finch all in one day. I shake my head at the cruelness of it all.
As I watch her, in her element, I know that I would not last a day in the Garden of Delilah.
Shoes On The Wrong Feet 
you really captured the nature of cats – killers and lovers at the same time – we did put a bell on our cat and I am convinced it saved many a life, and many a ugh!
Thank you. They are very sweet little bundles of fur to pet and cuddle with but they can be frighteningly instinctual beings as well. She was hiding under our back deck a lot which is right next to our bird feeders and they were easy pickings. It was awful. We boarded up all around the deck so she can not sneak attack the birds – this helped a lot. A bell may be in her future though.
we love our cats but not some of their “natural” or as you say instinctual ways
What a sweet kitty! I love the pic of her on the forest floor, with her eyes fixed terrifyingly on something! (Just hope it’s not the finger you’re clicking the photo with or something!)
It melts my heart to see how gentle and loving she is with the boys. I watch her pat their faces with her paw and think that those are the same paws that took down a chipmunk just an hour before. Sigh.
I think in that picture she was contemplating attacking our 70+ pound male German Shepard, Dexter. She has taken him on and won a couple times. Although in Dexter’s defense, he is just a big loving lug that has never been known as the brightest of dogs.
She’s so very cute, I wish Bob could manage to catch a mouse or two, it sure would have saved me a lot of money! LOL
Bob. I swear every time I see his name in type it makes me laugh. I don’t know why, perhaps I am easily amused by pets with human sounding names. Delilah also does her fair share of catch, play, and release which is not a great mouser trait. I seriously think that the next male cat we get will have to be named Bob.
You’re writing is definitely blossoming and I so love reading it!Your kitty reminds me sooo much of Scout and PJ.
I have thrown in some poetic posts in the past week or so, something I don’t think I have done before – it is fun to shake it up a bit. 🙂 Glad you like it!
I love Delilah but sometimes I feel like dead animal clean up patrol. I try to hide the evidence from the boys as much as I can because it upsets them. The baby bunny rather got to me. I have a small shovel near the front door I have coined “The Shovel of Doom” that I use for such occasions.
I had a baby bunny die in my arms last week because of a nieghbors dog they don’t keep locked up. When I was little our cat Toby used to do the same thing and when dad would get home from work he would carry the rodent by it’s tail across the street to the woods and throw it into “mousy heaven” I would even make him say a prayer sometimes
Great post. I had a cat like that once. Cat’s will be cats. As cruel as it is, it is actually a compliment to you from the cat. Mine are too lazy to do much of anything. 😉
I do rather take it as a compliment that she brings us her kills but it does get old after a while. I really could have done without the baby bunny.
It is easy to forget the savageness of nature in the sanitized, packaged suburban life. The baby bunny is sad – Peter Rabbit did not escape Delilah the wonder hunter. Yet do you think it helps your kids to see life and death at this small scale?
Delilah is a great hunter and she is happy about it. It is so much a part of who she is and I am touched that she shares her kills with us. I don’t particularly like when she plays with her victims. The kids get a small sense of the nitty gritty of nature with her around, that is for sure.
Yes, cats are not vegetarians, but there is a lot we could learn from them. I enjoyed meeting yours… nice post.
Vegetarians they most certainly are not. I love the complexity of cats, their ability to just be and enjoy life.
I am glad you stopped by. Thank you for the nice comment.