The blackbirds are silent now. Throughout June and early July I had a pair of blackbirds nesting in the ivy on the back of my house. I heard their daily dawn choruses and their daily frantic search for food and nesting material. And then I heard the twittering of the young - perhaps one or two birds - and the even more frantic search for food as they rushed back and forth with morsels to feed hungry mouths. Some days there was desperate screeching as they screamed at visiting cats and chased them away from the young birds. But then, a week or so ago, things went quiet. No longer did i see or hear the blackbirds. No longer did I see them coming and going to/from the nest. There was no dawn chorus any more. Had they left? Where had they flown to? But then, as I went to water the plants at far end of my garden, I saw the remains of a male blackbird, torn apart by a domestic cat. Nothing now but a few bones and feathers. Nature can be cruel but domestic cats are just killers that kill for pleasure. They do not need to kill for food. Their territories are not threatened. Their slaughter is just cruel indulgence. The domestic cat can scare away small rodents but for the most part it is an animal with few attractive redeeming features. It exists for itself. It does not show affection. It is difficult to picture a cat protecting its owner or staying faithful to anyone. Cats visit my garden to use it as a toilet and to lie in the sun. They create an unending stink with their malodorous excrement. They kill the birds. Who would want to own one of these sly, foul, midget monsters.
The blackbirds are quiet now.
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