No.....this is not about a mother-in-law, or a toxic wife, or a high maintenance girl-friend. It is about a shrew, unfortunately deceased, I recovered from a black and white cat lurking in our backyard. The fact that there was a cat in our backyard was singular enough because that form of life is standard fare for the coyotes that regularly course through our yard and the neighborhood.
But this cat had sat back on her haunches on the lawn in plain view from the window over my desk where I had sat back on my haunches to review the morning's news on my computer. Sure enough, the cat was toying with some very small "gray thing"....batting it around with her paws, snapping it up in her jaws and then dropping it back down for more alternating swipes of her paws. Cats don't sit down on a lawn to relax. They usually are tending to some cat-business....like toying with some unfortunate critter they have snatched up in a hunting foray. Actually, I don't think cats ever "relax" when coyotes may be near. Though focused on her little game, this cat was wary.
Curious to see what the cat had captured I went to the sliding door and opened it, knowing that the noise would frighten the cat and expecting that she would leave the "gray thing" behind. I hoped it wasn't one of my lizard buddies I had befriended on my Bataan-like "death walks" around the house during recovery. As expected the cat dashed off and left its prey behind.......a dead shrew. Aside from being dead, the shrew was in near perfect condition. I picked it up and examined it and then took it inside the house where it now lays on my desk about six inches from my keyboard as I peck out these words. It hasn't moved one little bit, so it isn't playing "dead". The early sunlight is slanting in through the door and highlighting the shrew's fine gray hair, or is it fur. The most remarkable things about this little mammal are the feet and the small face with its mini-snout and tiny eyes. It is not a male, or at least I can see no "male-like" equipment. There is no sign that it is nursing a brood, so there are no shrew-orphans nestled somewhere dark and secluded. That is a relief.
The shrew is probably full-grown. Its body is no more than two inches long from snout to rear-end and the tail is just under two inches long.
This little animal is one of the smallest mammals in creation. Its heart beats hundreds of times a minute. Its
appetite is voracious. Its attitude is big. Its lifespan is short. And this one lies dead on my desk. I find that sad. The cat did what cats do. Nature is merciless, really. There is no sentiment. That exists only in human beings......but not always.
Finding this animal reminds me of the jet-black shrew I found floating in our pool months ago. Its hair/fur was so dense it floated atop the surface of the water. It was dead. I guess it couldn't keep its snout above the surface and it drowned. That little shrew is in a plastic zip-lok bag stowed away in the freezer. I don't think Sue knows it is there, so I will take this opportunity to bury it with this morning's find.
Life.....
Stephen
BTW......to keep a balance here, I will allow that the male human equivalent to the aforementioned female types would be a "RAT".
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