Source: Pixabay
Snow had been falling throughout the night. Mercifully, the wind was gentle, barely discernible. It seemed the birds, who had scant pickings in this white wilderness, were not troubled at all by the persistent snowfall. Perhaps the absence of gales encouraged their adventurous spirit. Perhaps it wasn't desperation that drove them from the treetops and onto the cats' feeding dishes.
In good weather, I would often watch the nimble feathered creatures as they stole from the cats. It seemed always the birds were one step away from calamity. Every now and then a mangled mass of feathers and bone on the ground would testify to a gamble lost.
Today the cats were absent. Clever, those outdoor cats. They would wait until the worst of the storm was over and then amble to their dishes, which always reliably brimmed with food.
And so the birds ate with impunity, or so I thought. Then Orange Cat--I named them all by color because they were easier to identify that way--slunk out of its lair.
The birds, desperate for food, did not move. They pecked at the cat's dinner as though danger would never touch them. The cat stopped just feet from its dish.
I watched, almost breathless. The drama continued for at least ten minutes. Then the birds rose in unison and resumed their perches on icy tree limbs.
For all those ten minutes the cat was motionless, as though he had been invited to a show. I wonder sometimes if boredom does not set in when the cats huddle in their refuges during these storms. Perhaps the cat was more bored than hungry. Perhaps---can I think this without appearing to be naive?--the cat appreciated the wonder of nature, of survival as he endured the birds' theft of his dinner.
This is a mystery I will never solve. But that afternoon, all the ugliness of the winter day, all the suffering imposed by cold and power outages evaporated for me. In the cat, silent, tolerant witness I saw the other side of nature. Not brutality. Not cruelty, but a thing of wonder. A thing that for a least a few hours could fill me with a sense of loveliness.
Written in response to the Ink Well weekly challenge #3.
Hello @pokerm,
This is a heart-warming story. You captured the essence of beauty eloquently.
Thank you. I enjoyed writing the story.
There is beauty in those small timeless moments. Excellent narration and description @pokerm
Thank you very much for supporting this author, @litguru :)
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your support.
Hi @pokerm,
Your story is sublime. The atmosphere you recreated makes one float between the words. The first person narration makes me feel complicit in this cold and snowy day.
I find this sentence a beauty!
It was a great pleasure to read you!
Thank you very much, @marcybetancourt. Your words are very encouraging. This is my first post in the Ink Well community. Your comment will give me incentive to post again.
Thank you, @marcybetancourt, for supporting this writer's work!
Love this story, @pokerm. You captured the simplicity and charm that can sometimes be observed in the animal world. Perhaps kitty wasn't hungry, or perhaps the elegant dance of birds getting their fill was too entertaining to ruin it.
Nice job with the prompt!
I'm grateful for your kind words. As I wrote the story I saw the scene before my eyes (in my head). I'm glad that you had a sense of what I saw.
Thank you very much for your support.
That's a wonderful feeling, when you seem to be painting something that exists, vs. making up the story in your head.
I recently listened to two people who do improvisation describing this phenomenon. They walk onto a stage in front of an audience with no script, having no idea where their performance will take them. Soon one of them says something, then the other, and a story begins to take shape. Dimensions and characters and sub-plots emerge. They don't really even understand the phenomenon, but the two improvs agree on one thing: they are not making it up. They are simply relaying a story that is real and that exists in some dimension. So bizarre! But it did remind me of that feeling I get sometimes when writing fiction - that I'm recording something that needs to be told, not making it up.
Well done, @pokerm. Thank you for joining the prompt for this week. You did a great job with describing the setting without using adjectives as a crutch! We've given your story a boost via curie. Congratulations!
I'm very grateful. I guess I'll be back for next week's prompt!
I love how you played your words. I hope I can learn to use those beautiful words.
It's like it was I who was watching the cat. The way you narrated captivated me to keep on reading. Nice..
Thank you for this lovely comment, @mrnightmare.net. It's very encouraging for the author!
No, it should be received with wonderful words because of how the story flows.
I just read your story, but haven't commented yet. You use words very well. I enjoyed that story. Thank you for such a generous comment.
What a captivating narration! Lovely use of words to describe nature and the cold weather. The orange cat seems a patient one to watch the birds perch and eat out of its dinner. ☺️. Well done!
A lovely comment, @kemmyb! Thank you for engaging with this author.
Thank you! I have seen this happen many times, that the birds eat while a cat is nearby. It always surprises me, and worries me. I appreciate your comment.
Wow! I love this. You played with words effectively and eloquently. Well done. Having a different perspective of beauty. This is beautiful 🤓
Thank you for sharing your appreciation of this story. It is very encouraging for the author :)
Thank you very much for appreciating my take on beauty. There is so much beauty around us, but sometimes we are distracted by unpleasant things that happen. It's nice to take a moment and recognize beauty.
That is so true. It's tragic that we miss it, on many days. It's too easy to be caught up in what is not right in the world! I try to capture some beauty in pictures each day, as it helps me to remember to appreciate it.
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