There’s nothing like a dead mouse to get one’s blood flowing in the morning. So I've felt guilty for the rest of the day that Kaos and I inadvertently interrupted a kestrel’s breakfast on the promenade. My fault, watching the terns as I was and leaving the dog to snuffle at the end of his long lead, the extent of which took him nose to talons with the raptor, who – perhaps unsurprisingly – flew off in a huff. Leaving behind a small grey carcase with dishevelled hair, sticky-out teeth and a rather startled expression. Much like me (in so many more ways than one), the late mouse, it would seem, was not a morning creature either.
Most days, I claw my way to consciousness through the delicious thick air of slumber by means of multiple snooze button pauses on the alarm. Each time you press it, a delicate ten minute slice of warm treacly reprieve is served. But the alarm is remorseless and will continue trilling (I've found) for well over an hour. Some particularly Frankenstein-esque mornings it really does feel as if a big jolting zap of electricity is the only thing that will haul me out of bed. But lacking jump leads, I tend instead to rely on the good old fashioned remedy of what (thanks to Gimme Gimme Gimme) is known as a full English breakfast: a cup of tea and a fag.
Today though, perhaps because it is Friday (that most succulent of days) or perhaps because I'd gone to bed early-ish for once, I actually woke up before the alarm. A quick pull on of clothes and slooshing of the teeth later and Kaos and I were striding along the beach quite alone in the sunshine with the seabirds and the hungry kestrel. Blissful. Which is not precisely the description I'd apply to my next task of the day - the putting together of a huge spreadsheet.
Still, as I was working at home, I rewarded myself for finishing it with a Snickers bar and a cup of tea in the garden. And the hope that the kestrel had gone back for his breakfast mouse.
Picture of rescued kestrel chicks from the BBC
There were two occasions when I arrived home at my Sanctuary/Refuge that I interrupted an eagle from his feast on a rabbit. In both instances, the rabbit carcass was gone the next day. Whether the eagle returned (I like to think), or a coyote came in and made a lucky find, I do know.
ReplyDeleteAnother time, Katy, I rescued a rabbit scrapping for his life with a hawk. I wonder how I affected life a thousand years from now by that action. Sort of time travel cause and affect in reverse sequence. Considered that thought before?
Mmm, mouse - tasty.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember that time when one of the cats left a lovely slice of rabbit on our doorstep?
Gosh Fram, your Sanctuary / Refuge sounds like a marvellous place.
ReplyDeleteBut to answer your question, yes I do quite often think about that time travel / cause & affect conundrum. Certainly also in as it applies to any one of us when we take decisions which have clearly diverging pathways as a consequence. That whole seductive wonderful theory of parallel worlds, one different world created for each branch of a decision that we might take, and an infinite number of possibilities...
Also makes me think about the past actions that will have taken place to bring us (individually or collectively) to where we are now.
I certainly do remember that, Roo. A perfect cross section of a rabbit first thing in the morning... Hideous and fascinating all at the same time :-)
ReplyDeleteI cannot recall if I ever mentioned this, but I was doing a search on movies, specifically, "The Time Machine," when I stumbled onto Katy Jackson.
ReplyDeleteYou were writing about Red Sea diving at the time, and I have been here since.
I am not certain where else I might be, but that is why I am at this specific blog. Wild, hah?
Yes, Fram, I do remember that very well. You're quite right that I was in Egypt at the time and I remember getting your message about the Time Machine (probably my all time favourite film - time and time travel being something of a long-term obsession with me).
ReplyDeleteI was very new to blogging then, perhaps about a month in, and working out how it all worked on the computer in the lobby of the hotel in Egypt was quite amusing it itself, it being (natually) all set out for (and in) Arabic - thus needing to log on etc from right to left and so on...