The Circle of Life

I don't know if I can do justice to this tale, but I will give it my all: yesterday evening Chris and I headed over to our neighbor's house. Their cat, Elsie, has four kittens that she is mothering which has increased her desire to hunt for food. The four of us were sitting around drinking a beer and chatting when Elsie decided to strike. She had a sweet little bird in her mouth that she was going to eat for dinner. Monika is much like me, so she ran over and tried to get the poor bird out of Elsie's mouth. Steve is much like Chris and from the side lines kept yelling for Monika to grab Elsie by the scruff of the neck because Monika was struggling to yank Elsie's dinner away and was quite unsuccessful. Monika wasn't quite sure what Steve meant by the "scruff," but when I stood up to intervene, Steve, bolstered by a few beers, grabbed Elsie by the back of the neck, held her up high and shook. That poor bird fell right out of a bewildered Elsie's grasp and right into a patiently waiting Sophie's mouth. Sophie was thrilled! Chris pried the bird away from our dog, but it was too late. Steve suggested just throwing it into the bush, but I felt it should be comforted in it's last few seconds of life so I took it from Chris. It died in my hand. What was there to do but give it back to Elsie so it didn't die in vain? She took it inside the house to the bedroom where Monika and I discovered that the kittens were brawling over this grand feast. It was a bit too much Discover Africa for us.