TheBanyanTree: Who says critters don't talk to each other?

[Roger Pye]

Yes, Tom, I wish I had your exquisite turn of phrase. But here's a thing 
which has little to do with art as such, much more to do with 
communication (as with the poster in your photo).

We have in our family two humans, one dog (Miss Ruby, Yorkshire 
Terrier), four cats (Woodstock, ginger & white, Caspar, black, Merlin, 
black/white tabby, Miss Midgley, pure tabby with the fluffiest softest 
fur I have ever seen and felt) and four hens (all Isa Browns - Lilac 
(oldest & retired), Clover (semi-retired), Petunia and Crumpet (the 
egg-layers - one each a day regular as clockwork). In terms of animal 
dynamics Woodstock is the boss, Caspar can be and often is a a crabby 
individual, Merlin (18 mths old) and Midge (12 mths) are almost 
inseparable and Lilac tends to be a loner.

Ruby and the chooks have the run of the back yard during the day. At 
night she is in the house and the hens are in their tractor coop. The 
cats do not 'free range' at all - they have their own cage (the size of 
a small room) attached to the back of the house and the run of the rest 
of our home during the day - at night Woodstock, Merlin and Midge sleep 
in the laundry, Caspar prowls around inside and Ruby sleeps in our bedroom.

Of course there are other pets around here besides ours. Two cats live 
over the back fence, one of them is ginger (Leo) and spends a fair 
amount of time in our garden eyeing off the chooks. Not that he'd ever 
be stupid enough to take one on - he knows the others would be all over 
him. There is also a black and white cat which hunts and gathers around 
the neighbourhood - one next door neighbour feeds him fish (she swears 
he won't eat anything else), from another he gets raw meat (ditto), from 
another he gets leftovers and so on. From us he gets a stroke now and 
then. However, both would happily take a newly laid egg if they got the 
chance - and Petunia lays hers in the ivy which rambles over a side 
fence by a corner of the house.

I have lost count of the number of times Ruby has been fast asleep on 
the settee in the living room at the front of the house then suddenly 
arrived at the door to the back deck breathing fast, tail wagging, and 
raced out when I open it, straight down to the back corner of the 
garden. Exit Leo over the fence hightailing it to safety. How Ruby knew 
he was there puzzled me for months until one day I realised that 
whenever it happened there was at least one cat in the cage!

Recently we've had a change - both yesterday and today we had the same 
scenario except for one thing - there were NO cats in the cage. Instead 
there were two chooks lined up in front of where Petunia lays hers and 
they didn't move away until Leo had gone.

Who says critters don't talk to each other!

roger

Sachet wrote:
> I love this, Tom. You have the most fascinating insights.
> 
> Tom Smith wrote:
>> We are all artists all
>> at work creating
>> tiles for a living mosaic
>>
>> Inspired by the photo at
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/9482738@N07/4678677563/
>>
>>
>>      
>