The Great Naked Hunter

We had a little excitement in our house this morning. For those of you that don’t know our place; we live in the foothills of the Coast Range of Oregon, timber is the main theme at our home. Timber in the logs and beams that make up the home and the standing trees that closely pack the land all around the home. The home itself is a lofty thing. When I drew up the plans it looked so small on paper that I kept adding inches which turned into feet in the finished structure. The main floor is logs and mostly an open room with a ten-foot ceiling, open in the center to the top floor. The top floor is all open bedrooms and bathroom with railings that look down to the living room, kitchen and dining room below. There are a few old office partitions that divide off the children’s side of the loft to give them privacy but everything is open to the vaulted ceiling that peaks at seventeen feet. Of course the kids are gone now so their rooms are a guestroom and my wife’s sewing/computer room. The only access between floors is through the three-story sunroom on the south side of the house. The upper two floors of the sunroom are open as one big room with the stairs leading between floors with landings. One of the characters in this story is our Black Cat, BC for short. He is quite the character and a good hunter – too good. During this cold weather we have little birds that flit from tree to tree digging goodies out of the bark to eat. My wife and I sometimes lay in bed on weekend mornings and watch them in the trees just outside our window. This morning when I woke up my wife was already up. I was lying in bed trying to get the courage to throw off the covers and face the chilly morning when my wife shouted from her sewing room, “There is a bird in the house!” Over the years we have had bats and mice find their way in, the mice usually brought in by BC as playthings. It has been rare that a bird comes in. My first thought was “That damn cat, bringing in another plaything”, then the next thought was to catch the poor thing before the cat did. The bird might not be so lucky the second time around. I jumped out of bed and was standing at the railing as my wife was coming out of her sewing room to stand at the railing on the other side of the opening to below. We looked at each other across the void and both asked at the same time, “Where’s the cat?” Obviously he must not have been curled on her lap in the sewing room and he had not been at the foot of the bed with me. He must be out in the sunroom. I had built little passageways for him to be able to come and go anywhere in the house or outside as he pleases. He is good about taking care of business outdoors so I did not want him getting trapped someplace in the house and making a mess. The only drawback of having these passageways is that we sometimes wake to an offering laid at the foot of our bed. This bird that we were now craning our necks for was probably going to be an offering but managed to escape. My wife spotted the bird on the chain for the swag light over the tub and the chase was on. The thought was to catch him when he flew into a window but after the second window he figured out what glass was and avoided them. My wife was yelling to open the glass door out to our bedroom deck to let him out but instead he flew down through the opening to the floor below. We raced out to the sunroom and down the stairs. BC was at the bottom of the stairs looking like he had lost something and tried to follow us into the main part of the house. We blocked him from coming in and began our search for the bird again. We found him perched on one of the top logs so I climbed up on the couch to grab him. He flew from log to log, light to light, always flying off before we could get up to him. I could tell he was getting tired as we were getting closer each time. One time he flew right through my wife’s fingers and I hollered in frustration, “Just grab him!” Then it was my turn and he flew through my fingers and my wife says with a hint of humor and sarcasm, “Just grab him Honey.” Back up through the opening to the loft he went so it was out into the sunroom and a wild dash up the stairs again. I can hear by wife beginning to laugh behind me. This time we opened the outside door to our deck and took up the chase again. The ceiling is a bit high to climb up on furniture to reach him so my wife gets the tall pole that has the duster ball on it. Round and round, back and forth we run waving our arms and brandishing the duster ball, all the while my wife laughing harder. I am just hoping we can catch this poor thing before the cat discovers what we are up to and beats us to it. Finally it flies out the door and I watch it until it is out of sight down by my shop. I slide the door shut to keep anymore of the 20-degree winter from coming in and turn to my wife. I ask, “And just what was so funny?” Suppressing more mirth, she says, “You would have had to have seen the same visual I did.” And she holds out her arms towards me like she is presenting me to an audience, “The Great Naked Hunter!!” I am glad I was able to provide a little humor in her day.
If you had been there with my wife, what would your reaction have been?
Told you to get dressed, you are embarassing me.
Laughed harder then she did.
schucked out of my clothes and joined in the fun
Told you to take care of the damn bird yourself and gone back to my computer
Let BC take care of the situation, after all, he started it. See results
Told you to get dressed, you are embarassing me.
0
Laughed harder then she did.
2
schucked out of my clothes and joined in the fun
3
Told you to take care of the damn bird yourself and gone back to my computer
0
Let BC take care of the situation, after all, he started it.
0 Cast My Vote

Sunday January 14, 2007 - 02:14pm (PST)