My Friends Wear Fur Coats!

  He lies in the tall grass intently watching the three wild turkeys that are pecking around in the grass looking for food. The smallest hen is getting nervous. She looks around and comes face to face with the predator stalking as he comes leaping out of the grass. Before she can vocalize her fear she is pounced upon and her neck is deftly broken.

     The other two turkeys let out shrill cries and fly off. The feathers from their fallen comrade flutter on the breeze as the beautiful silver and white wolf trots off with his prize hanging from his mouth. He lays the turkey on the ground in front of his mate. She is a brown, white and silver female with large expressive dark brown eyes. The two wolves start devouring the kill.

     Hunter is a seven year old male and his mate is three years older than he. Their lifelong companionship started when he was thirteen weeks old and she was three. He grew up with her as a friend and then a lover and their bond is for life.

     The brush is dense and bushy where the hunter is lying in wait for the pheasant that is warily eating on top of the mountain of dirt. The pheasant knows that there are many enemies that hide and wait for him to show himself. He has an advantage in his ability to fly but he does need a little time to get airborne. This particular predator has been waiting for this pheasant to get complacent and relax its guard for several hours.

     The pheasant starts to go around the back side of the manmade hill of dirt he has been hunting seeds on for the afternoon. There are a couple of dogs in a backyard nearby that have been barking at him whenever they see him. He isn’t worried because they are inside a fence and can’t come close.

     Out of the corner of his eye the bird sees a blur of action on one side of him and he prepares to take flight. On the other side of the dirt the hunter who has been lying in wait for such a long time has to make his move since his prey has been startled. Just as the large black cat comes leaping out of the brush to flank the pheasant the smaller cat clumsily comes running out in the open towards him after already giving its position away. The pheasant sees the two cats closing ground and takes to the air.

     The muscular black cat has deep green eyes that shimmer with a look of liquid velvet. He looks at the fat calico female that just scared the pheasant off with disgust. All of his hours of patient stalking have been laid to waste by the clumsy female that he thought he left at home. This is not the first hunt of his that she has screwed up. Many times he has hunted mice and successfully has caught them. Occasionally he offers one of them to his female companion to kill after he has caught them. He feels like a mighty hunter when he can give some of his prey away to another to enjoy the kill. This female always fumbles the mouse and allows it get away. He should learn not give her live presents but he has grown tired of killing and eating the little creatures. He enjoys watching others when they get excited when he offers them a live mouse to kill so much that he wants her to enjoy it also.

     Hunter looks up at me as I gently stroke him with his dark brown eyes that project love and mischief in the same glance. I tell him how beautiful he is and he sucks it up rubbing the top of his head against my leg. Saki barks as if to say “Hey I am in the room too, look at me!” We both look at her and she comes over and tries to wedge her way into the action. I pet her furry head with one hand while petting Hunter with the other. They are jealous friends and lovers for life.

     I hold her tiny grey paw in my hand. She gently flexes her claws in a loving gesture of friendship and she looks at me directly with her soft olive green eyes. Then she starts purring loudly and curls up under my arm. There is no way to know what she is thinking but from the look in her eyes and peaceful ambiance it feels like love. What is love anyway? Mojo tromps up and looks at his friend curled up next to me and he starts washing her head, not gently either. At first she leans into him and enjoys the bath but as he continues to vigorously wash her she gets annoyed and hisses at him. He backs off a bit and stares at her, he won, he pissed her off and she walks off my lap which he immediately inhabits.

     I adopted the 2 eighty percent wolf dogs when the male was thirteen weeks old and the female was three years old from a wolf and wolf dog sanctuary seven years ago in the neighboring state of California. They are now 7 and 10 years old and still beloved mates. The two cats I got from the local pound in Oregon and the male was 8 weeks old and his mother had been killed by a dog when he was three weeks old. The female was 6 months old and had been turned over to the pound by her owner, she was tiny and the reason was they said she didn’t get along with the other cat. The two cats became immediate best friends and still are to this day and they are fourteen years old. We all live together on my 12 acre mini ranch and they sleep together with me in the house at night. They are my best friends and companions and they all wear fur coats!