I watched a wonderful documentary on BBC Four the other night about the dawn chorus.  It was part of the slow television series of programs which included a very relaxing two hours of television following a barge on it’s journey up the Kennet and Avon canal.

Mehmet The Magnificent and Tina Sparkles had gone to bed early leaving me with Tomasz and Tufty-Tim curled up on the sofa beside me.  According to the documentary, early May is when the dawn chorus is at its loudest and as the television set came alive with the trill of bird-song the cats began to stir.  Tomasz, a seasoned house-cat having had two homes before being adopted by my clients, watched the screen intently but seemed to know that the birds that hopped about on it were not accessible to him.  Tufty-Tim, however, being the youngest member of The Freathy Feline Four and coming from rural beginnings was fascinated and flummoxed by the chirping, two dimensional creatures that tantalizingly fluttered before him.  So real did Tufty-Tim believe them to be that he sat in front of the television, patting the image of a blackbird perched on the branch of a tree with his paw.  When the black bird flew off, Tim got up onto the television table but couldn’t catch it!  I had visions of Tufty-Tim jumping over the telly and getting into a pickle.  Despite encouraging him down from his vantage point, Tim still had to check around the back of the T.V. set just in case his feathered prey were hiding behind it!!