Surprise Guests

We store our Christmas paraphernalia in the attic. There are no steps to our attic, a ladder is necessary, which makes the entire process of hoisting up all the boxes even more tiresome. This year there was a most surprising element to this long and tedious job: when we opened the attic hatch, two starlings flew down, into the house!

Needless to say, pandemonium ensued: two of our seven cats were hanging around at the time, one right under the ladder – his eyes almost bulged right out of his head at the amazing sight! And in a flash, he was off, the second cat already after the two disoriented birds. The whole congregation headed for the bedroom, we humans in hot pursuit.

We reached the bedroom door just as one of the cats (the older female) was leaping at a starling, which managed to elude her, then proceeded to fly around madly, in circles. This frantic behavior totally unnerved the other, much younger, male cat, who reacted by running to hide under the bed. One down, one to go.

I managed to grab the female cat and hurried out of the room; there was no need to pursue the younger feline: he was only too ready to escape, and dashing out from under the bed, he raced after us, away from the “frightening” avian spectacle.

With the threat of mayhem now avoided, my husband then began the rescue process: it wasn't easy, the first bird was still circling frantically; the second starling, obviously the more easygoing of the pair, had watched the antics, comfortably perched on the dresser. However when approached, it took off and tried to avoid capture by flying down behind the tallboy, where it proceeded to get stuck. This necessitated a complete emptying of all the drawers in order to move the ponderous piece of furniture. Following this, several other disasters occured, however we were finally successful in capturing, then releasing the pair.

They were none the worse for the experience, however my young male cat was snaky for the rest of the day. The bedroom was in total chaos, and it took longer to clean up that mess than it did to return the Christmas stuff to the attic.

The next stage will be to find the starlings' entry point in the attic, but we're not anxious to open up that hatch again too soon. It's possible the starlings have returned. If they have, and fly back into the house, my next report will not be entitled “Surprise Guests” but rather “Unwelcome Guests”.