The barn swallows are back.

Those two little barn swallows that sat up in the nest by the back steps of the porch are back again for another season.  Last Spring and Summer, those two birds watched me go up and down the steps, back and forth on the porch, and they didn't fly away from their nest as I got close to it. They perched at the edge of that nest and just watched me, with that one-eyed tilt of their cute little heads, watching every step I took.

Well, they're back.... and I'm sure it's the same two birds because they're not flying out of the nest when they see me... both of them tilt their heads to the side and watch me coming and going.  And they're not even flying away when Mickey and Gatsby go near those steps under their nest..... just like last year, the little birds look down at the cats and just sit quietly and watch.  Just amazing. How in the world do they find this house tucked into the hills after being away from it for so many months?  Little birdie-GPS systems?

I'm wishing I could put a kitty-GPS collar on that orange/white cat..... and give him directions to the local shelter so I won't have to take him there.  This cat is getting me just a little bit nuts these days.  He clearly knows I'm up to something because he sees that cat-crate on the porch and he won't go near it, no matter what kind of cat food I put into it. (Not even a can of Fancy Feast tempted him last night.)

I've found two dead birds near the house, and I'm sure that was the work of the orange/white stray. Gatsby isn't interested in chasing after anything he wouldn't eat, and if Mickey had killed the birds, he would have brought them up to the porch. Mickey's isn't exactly an experienced hunter anyway, except with lizards.  The orange cat has also become very vocal......... meowing his way onto the porch every night, as if announcing to the world that he has arrived at 'his' home.

I am determined to bring that orange/white cat to the shelter...... enough already with feeding Fancy Feast and Meow Mix to this cat who has taken over the porch at night, to the point that Gatsby hides in a corner and doesn't even try chasing him away anymore.  Gatsby never wastes an ounce of energy unless it's a sure thing.