Menagerie

29 Jul Menagerie

Look who I found as I headed out today.  That’s the inside of my front door he’s hanging onto.  (In my head, because of past visitors, my brain starts playing “Dweller on the Threshold” by Van Morrison.  Just happens.)   I believe he got there on his own, no furry feline help.  Looks like he has a bit of a snack there in his cobweb bag. Yum. (Ugh.)

He wasn’t inclined to move on from his spot, and after admiring him for a minute I slowly slowly opened the door, watching that gorgeous long tail to make sure I didn’t pinch it.

(I’ve come across many a tail that a scared lizard has left behind in my house, still twitching, and the sight of one still attached is a beautiful thing indeed.)

When I’d got the door just wide enough to slip through I stood outside wondering where that tail would end up if I now closed the door.  So I left it open. In looking after lizard tails special rules apply.

I passed monster baby peeking down from the swallow nest by the front door.  Instead of four or even five babies, this nesting round produced just one baby, and he’s getting bigger than both parents with no other open beaks to compete with.

He’s learned to fly and sometimes he sits on my railing, singing in baby talk, fluffing his feathers, and opening his beak just in time as a parent flies past and stuffs something in.  Sweet deal.

This time he was in the nest peeking at me, his head bobbing up and down.  Why so shy, monster?

Sometimes he sits and stares down at me, blinking slowly, and we exchange pleasantries and thoughts.  Very sweet gentle swallow family, this.  I’m crossing my fingers they’ll raise one more nestful this summer.

Usually as I exchange swallow talk there’s at least one cat rolling on the ground under my feet.  This doesn’t seem to phase monster baby at all.  Every time someone comes home Scouty comes running to meet and greet and throw herself on the ground to roll and roll and roll.  We call it her happy roll and I’ve never seen a cat look happier than Scouty when she rolls.  She’s blissful.  And impossible to capture an image of.  She pushes herself off with her feet so that she moves around in a circle even as she rolls from side to side.  I’ve spent the last weeks jumping out of my car with my phone ready trying to capture the real orgy of rolling that she starts off with but she’s thwarted me for the most part — a bit shy — and when I caught some I couldn’t attach the file here.  This is one frame from it and not the best.  Just picture lots of rolling and a blissed out cat.  Now I just enjoy watching it.  It’s like a baby laughing.  You can’t feel grumpy or sad watching Scouty doing her happy rolls.

Always something to see.  Life is good.