Murder

I was quietly enjoying my dinner last night when I witnessed a murder.  Some black capped chickadees were enjoying the left-over canary food I had set out on my deck railing when Blammo!  A calico cat leaped up on the railing and grabbed a black capped chickadee.  I immediately yelled (again, another dollar to the swearing envelope) stood up and stomped off to the deck.  By then the calico cat and chickadee were halfway to the woods and all that was left was a pile of chickadee feathers.  Man, that really ticks me off.  I feel complicit in this crime.  I tempt the birds to come to my deck by putting food out and the stray cat takes advantage of my soft heart to commit murder.  I wish people would keep their cats inside the house.  One neighbor found a litter of kittens and felt sorry for them.  She provided them with shelter, food and surgical birth control.  But she lets these feral cats live outside and they must not be satisfied with what she feeds them because I see them prowling my yard for snacks.  The cats don't attack the chickens though, I'll give them that.  But I wasn't happy about them even before I witnessed the chickadee murder.  They've been using my yard as a cat box. My chickens disturb the ground right next to the house to take their dust baths.  They leave a strip of sand right against the building.  The cats come and do their business there.  One night I was awoken by a stench so bad, so evil and foul, it woke me up from a sound sleep.  A cat left a deposit right under the bedroom window.  An entire neighborhood is available and this is the spot it chose.  Cats.  I just don't like them.  Never have.