Wild Kingdom in my backyard
Yesterday I was working away in my office when I saw a grey cat lightly pounce over my fence and amble up to one of the big live oaks in my backyard. He looked amazingly relaxed as he gazed up the tree. After a moment or two he nonchalantly leapt up into the lowest branches and disappeared into the tree.
I didn’t think anything of it, except that cats are cool, until a few minutes later when I saw a squirrel run down the tree. He tried to run away but the cat came out of nowhere and blocked his path. Than the squirrel tried to run back up the tree and the cat lunged at him and knocked him to the ground landing perfectly over his prey. With one bite he had made the squirrel motionless and picked him up and calmly walked to my fence and hopped over back into the woods.
It was the most incredible animal kill I’ve ever seen. Above even the chases on Animal Planet. Clean and quick without a moments pause or hesitation. That cat was a hunter. It also brought to mind the raw and pure elements of nature, although I did feel slightly bad for the squirrel, it was nature at her finest. The strongest and fastest beast lives while her prey does not.
I made a mental note to get outside as much as possible to find more elements of nature to use as inspiration in the things I create and write about. It can be beautiful or horrible, but it never ceases to amaze.
Category: Design, nature 2 comments »
November 4th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
That’s such a coincidence because my almost 3 year-old daughter had a nightmare about squirrels last night! She’d been watching Willy Wonka (the Johnny Depp version) with her older brother, which happens to currently be his favorite movie. It was the scene where the squirrels jump on Baruca Salt and shove her down the garbage shoot because she was “a bad nut.” Too bad we don’t have a cat.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
“Little girl! Don’t touch that squirrel’s nuts!” Johnny Depp is fantastic, but I still prefer the old Wonka. Gene Wilder was brilliant. Scary brilliant.