Night Adventures with a Kitten
The other night I decided to take Mr. Christy, my 3 month old tabby kitten out for a walk. It was very late and the streets were deserted. Mr. Christy was delighted with being out, head and ears flicking every which way to catch the different night sounds.
He led me up the stairs at the front of a condo and dropped to his belly and froze, perfectly still except for a tiny twitching of his tail, intently watching something in the grassy area in front of him. I wondered what he was doing and decided to follow his lead. As we waited completely motionless, a black tail appeared behind a garden rock, waving back and forth.
My night vision adjusting, I could finally see what Mr. Christy had seen immediately; a young skunk sniffing around in the garden, his tail waving in the air, nose to the ground. As we watched, the skunk investigated the entire garden area, finally shuffling off into another yard and out of site.
We continued down the street, with Mr. Christy leading us into a large parking lot behind a local hall. Again, he suddenly dropped to his belly and froze, watching the far corner of the lot. I crouched beside him and strained to see what he had spotted. This time it was a possum ambling along the far wall. We watched as the possum moved out of sight into some bushes in the next lot.
We were on the move again, Mr. Christy hyper alert with twitching ears and sudden stops as he saw through his night eyes. With a sudden leap he jumped up a telephone pole beside us, cat climbing up the side and just as suddenly dropping to the ground, ready to pounce, tail fluffed out and hackles up. He had knocked down an enormous black widow spider from the telephone pole and was all set to attack it. I picked him up and soothed him as we walked away. I don’t think my little cat would have survived a bite from a black widow!
What’s amazing about all this is that if I had been alone I would never have seen these creatures of the night. Only being out with my little kitten with his incredible night vision and hearing made it possible for me to see them!