My friends John and Kim are here on John's normal fall Western trip. They have been on the road since late Aug. They just got back from a trip to Glacier, Yellowstone and Northern Montana and Idaho. Since today was Sunday and Sourdough pancake breakfast day. Connie is house sitting for a friend of ours just down the road a bit, so we got a bit later start to hawking than is usual. Even though it is October it is still quite warm almost to the uncomfortable stage.
Upon weighing Hope, I find that she is still a bit higher in weight than I would like, but since I intended to hawk here at the house, it shouldn't be a big deal. She will or she won't. No big loss either way. I still need exercise, and this is much more interesting than just a stroll down the runway.
John is in his 80's and more than a little crippled up from a hard life of serious playing. So Connie and I parked a quad at the other end of the runway and the plan was for John and I to walk out around the hill to the North of me and back to the end of the runway where the quad was parked. The thinking was, that would end up to be more than a mile and be just about all the walking he could stand. That way if we hadn't caught anything by then I could still venture further afield if needed.
Connie has three Cats now. Her older cat, Chilli, a yellow long hair, and two 11 week old Kittens. Chilli is a real "Cats, Cat. He doesn't like to be petted, will rarely cuddle, likes to sneak outside at night to hunt, and is over all about as much company and fun as a wet rock. He hisses at the kittens, seems to actually share the same attitude as WC Fields towards kids. He has been staying here at the house while Connie has been making her regular visit to the "Valley". His normal routine is to come back in at 10PM for the nightly feeding of Tiger, (my yellow short haired Cat) and the "kids". Try to sneak back out again before I go to bed. Spend the night in the open window, occasionally testing the screen for a possible escape. Out the first thing in the morning, back in again about 10AM, then sleep until evening when it all starts again. all the while hiding from the Kittens in the back bedroom. He is actually pretty low maintenance for a Cat. He does however have one little quirk that I have rarely seen in cats. He likes to go on walks.
After getting every thing set up for hawking, John and I start across the field to the tower, and here comes Chilli.
Hope is sitting on the tower, waiting for me to get in the field. Most raptors that will take Jack Rabbits will also kill Cats if they get a chance. Hope however has apparently seen enough Cats around the weathering area that she knows that they are not Rabbits. It still makes me nervous! I can just see the damage to both Cat and Hawk that is possible and extremely grateful that Hope doesn't try to catch him. I say tentative because I cannot believe that it will not happen at the worst possible time and place.
It was pretty warm, and I thought that he would have sense enough to stop and go back once we got out there a ways, but no! Not him. It was warm enough that the Timber Tigers, (lizards and other undesirable prey items) were out and Hope can really turn and twist for one of them. The first one she swallowed before either of us was close enough to see it all, but the second one she caught was right in front of us. As she swallowed the last of the tail.
Chilli started up to see what it was. Hope in a flash made a lunge toward him, and Chilli wisely changed his mind. Hope stood back up and tucked her wings back, and jumped up on the tee perch. I breathed a large sigh of relief.
The combination of extra weight, high temps, two lizards, not to mention wiley Jack Rabbits, we didn't catch anything else. I dropped John off at his quad, and Chilli and I began our long walk home. His tongue was hanging out and he was bitching with almost every step. At the end I had to stop and let him rest a bit, but he made the whole 1.7 miles with me.
I filled his water dish with fresh water and fed him some more goodies when we got in the house. He is passed out on the shady side of the porch.
We will try again tomorrow or tuesday hopefully without the entourage this time.
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