Catch As Cat Can

                "Well, I've got Mr. Maupin's seeder for the weekend so I'd better overseed those pastures," she said to the animals, good listeners. 'I was lucky to get it. Anyone with a seeder can rent it out for good money, you know. I'd love to buy one but we'd need almost twenty thousand dollars and, you know, I'd rather stand in line and wait to rent Mr. Maupin's. Even a used one is expensive and you only use it n the spring and, in the fall, depending . . ." Her voice trailed off, then rose again."The trouble is, when you need it, you need it. We were lucky this year." She reached over to stroke Mrs. Murphy's silken head, as the cat had joined her at the table."I just feel it's going to be a lucky spring. Worms to turn and eggs to lay."

                She washed her dishes, walked out on the screened-in porch, and threw on her barn jacket which hung on a peg. The tempera-are was in the forties but by noon would near sixty-five.

                As Harry stepped outside into the refreshingly cool air the first ling she noticed was the fog on the mountains. The sun, rising, re-acted onto the fog, creating millions of tiny rainbows. The sight /as so beautiful that Harry stopped in her tracks and held her breath for an instant.

                The cats noticed the rainbows but their attention was diverted y a huge pileated woodpecker, lying in the dust, just off the screened-in porch.

                "Cool." Pewter hurried over, tried to pick up the freshly dead bird in her jaws. It was quite heavy. She gave up.

                "I could help you with that," Tucker offered.

                "Touch my bird and you the," Pewter hissed. Mrs. Murphy laughed."It's not like you brought it down, Pewter." "I found it. That s almost as good."

                "Yeah, the great gray hunter." Tucker curled her upper lip."I don't see you catching anything, fat bum." Pewter's eyes narrowed to slits.

                "I'm not fat. I don't have a tail. That makes me look fat," Tucker replied sharply."Bubble butt, you should know."

                Pewter lashed out, catching the dog squarely on the nose."Weenie." "Ouch."

                "What is going on with you two?" Harry walked over to the fighting animals."Oh, no." She knelt down to examine the giant woodpecker."You hardly ever see one of these up close."

                "I found it first." Pewter put her paw on its plump breast, claws out for emphasis.

                "Pewter, let go," Harry commanded her."Only if I get my birdie back." She swished her tail."You'd better let go, Pewts," Mrs. Murphy advised."Oh, sure, so you con grab my woodpecker." " 'Cause she's top dog," Tucker wisely noted."I'm not a dog." The gray cat said this with a supercilious air."Good, because I'd hate to claim you."

                "You're being a real snot," the cat said but she relinquished the bird, retracting her claws.

                Harry first felt the woodpecker's neck because a bird will sometimes fly into a windowpane and break its neck. The woodpecker's neck was fine and woodpeckers usually don't fly that close to houses. She turned the bird over. Not a mark."This guy is heavy." "Tell me," Pewter agreed.

                "In perfect condition. Strange. Really strange." Harry lifted the bird by its feet as she stood up."Taxidermist," was all she said."I can pull the feathers off a stuffed bird as well as a live one." Pewter smiled."Indulge her, Pewter," Tucker growled, her nose still hurting.

                The cat said nothing, following Harry closely as the human looted her old large cooler, filled it with ice, wrapped the woodpecker in a plastic bag, then placed it in the cooler. She would visit lie taxidermist after overseeding.

                She then walked to the barn, turned the three horses out, picked stalls, scrubbed water buckets, and was on the tractor in no time, happy as she could be.

                The animals had no desire to run after the tractor as Harry monotonously rolled up and down the fields, so they reposed under a large white lilac bush, blooms half-opened. Pewter and Tucker called a truce.

                "It was weird-that woodpecker." Mrs. Murphy watched a swarm of ladybugs head their way.

                "An omen. Found treasure," Pewter purred.

                Tucker rested her head on her paws."A bad omen if you're the wood-pecker."

                2

                "What do you think?" Harry leaned over the heavy wooden table where Don Clatterbuck studied the recently deceased pileated woodpecker.

                "I can do it. Sure can." His smile revealed teeth stained by chewing tobacco, a habit learned from his maternal grandfather, Riley "Booty" Mawyer, who was old but still farming.

                She folded her arms across her chest."Lots?"

                "Not for you." He smiled again.

                "Well-?"

                "Oh, how about a hundred dollars and you give my card out when foxhunting starts again? At the meets."

                "Really?" Harry knew she was getting a good deal because stuffing birds was more difficult than stuffing deer heads.

                "Yeah. We go back a ways, Skeezits." He called her by a childhood nickname.

                "Guess we do." She smiled back and pointed to coffee tables, the tops covered with old license plates, some dating back to the 1920s."These are good. You ought to carry them up to Middleburg and put them in those expensive shops there."