Unfortunately, life in the Redwoods isn't always eating and sleeping. There are times when the hunters become the hunted. Coyotes and Mountain Lions just love to snack on little Fluffy, and will do it with the same precision used by Chairman. An outdoor cat has only about a two year life expectancy, so it is quite amazing that Chairman has made it all these twenty or so years in the big outdoors. There have been close calls for him, and I was witness to one such event.
At the time my computer was in an upper room that looked out onto a Redwood deck, with a view of Roses, flowering Plum Trees and mighty Redwoods towering in the background. One afternoon, as I sat at my computer whappety tapping away, I heard some rustling in the woods just outside the sliding door I had open to let in the cool air. In my mind it sounded as though a deer had its antlers tangled in some brush, and was thrashing about trying to get untangled. I stepped out onto the deck just as Chairman Meow exploded out of the woods, running faster than I've ever seen him move, with a Coyote hot on his heels. Out in the open, the Coyote would have been able to overtake the Chairman, and was about to do so when I stomped on the deck as hard as I could, and hollered, "Hey!" The loud sound distracted the coyote long enough for Chairman to dive into an underground 10" corrugated metal drainage pipe. The Coyote realized that his meal had been thwarted, and ran off to try his luck elsewhere.
I found Chairman hiding in a tree about two hours later. Apparently he ran through the pipe under the driveway, and up into one of the big Plum Trees where I found him.
Viva La Meowa!
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