Evening star., 1945-10-15
This and That
By Charles E. Trdcewell

Cats seldom catch squirrels.
Most often when they do, the affair
is not fatal to the rodent
Squirrels have way of playing dead,
until the unwary cat puts the animal
down.
The squirrel then sprints for a tree,
and Is up 1t to safety before the be-
wildered feline knows what has hap
pened
Big Thumper, the black and white cat,
caught his first squirrel the other day.,
after playing with them for two years.
Playing is the correct word.
Hitherto he had regarded squirrels as
playthings, not game, or prey. But re-
Gently steady catch of field mice and
shrews had put more of the hunting in
stinct to work.
X
Instead of playing with the bushy
tailed rodents, Trump (for shorD got
down to business.
This was rather unfair, of course,
because he had lured the squirrels into
thinking that he could not catch them,
or would not, which worked out to the
same thing.
Thump had SO far never put his paw
to them.
For days he had sat at the base of
bird feeding station on stake and
there looked up at the wise four-legged
fellows at the seed.
These, for their part, merely snapped
out paw when the cat reached too far
up.
Thump would draw back rapidly.
1t seemed more of game with both
of them than anything else, because it
was possible for the cat to have caught
them all these months.
Upon one occasion the squirrel which
he had been chasing in leisurely FASH
ion simply made somersault over the
cats back
This so intrigued him that he, in his
turn, made somersault over the squir-
rel
From that time on Thumper dor
long, let the squirrels pretty much
alone.
They got to the point, bad in natures
world, where they were no longer afraid
of him.
Just how he caught his first squirrel
was unknown, because the first we saw
to the driveway with something in his
mouth.
The squirrels tail hid most of the
cats face, as it dropped and dropped
across him.
At first it was difficult to determine
just what he had In his mouth.
The worst thing was the cry which
the caught animal was sending forth.
It's effect on the other squirrels
around was magic.
They began running in from all
directions, until there must have been
at least a dozen. They ran toward the
cat, and tried to tempt him to give up
his prey.
In the meantime, the caught animal
kept making high, shrill noise, utterly
unlike that made by squirrel under
any other stress.
The sound showed he was young
fellow. Older squirrels, when caught,
make no sound whatever They have
learned the lesson of staying as quiet
as possible, in order to put the catcher
off guard.
Young squirrels, on the other hand,
cry both in alarm and for help from
mother and father, who always have
helped them hitherto.
Thumper ran around the back of the
house, and stopped by the lilacs. Squir-
rels were all around him, while birds
had joined the chorus, and humans now
were milling around.
Thump carefully dropped the squirrel,
thinking no doubt that he could play
with it in the way that nature had
Taught his kind tn do
The young squirrel had other ideas.
With bound. he leaped into the lower
branches Of the nlacs, and was away
over the yard, disappearing high into q
tree.
The big cat looked up with silly ex-
preston on his face, just as If he were
saying. We'll, what do you know about
ti1at!"