The White Cat & the Squirrel

Trail Wood #16.09 by Earl Plato

Writer’s Note: According to my parents “Whitey” our white cat was born the same year as I was. For eight years Whitey was my cat. No albino but pure white she was a skilled huntress. More than once she brought her prey back to our little farm. Sadly one day she dropped the body of a beautiful meadow lark at our door. Sometime in her eighth year she disappeared. I missed her. Edwin Teale, as a trained naturalist, watched a white cat on his Trail Wood property. He wrote on that March date: “ My eye is first caught by its little leaps and that as it forages over the ground for food. I watch it for a moment or two before I become aware of a large white cat that has wandered from a neighboring farm. It is crouching low in the grass. Its eyes follow every movement of the squirrel. For some reason that usually alert animal seems unaware of the cat. It even turns its back to the danger. That is the signal. The white cat streaks torward it and makes it leap. With the squirrel in its mouth it begins to run, making surprising leaps with so heavy a burden. Shaking off my surprise I set out in pursuit. The white cat drops the squirrel and scuttles into the protection of he Wild Plum tangle.”
Note: Teale writes next about survival..