Postcards: Homocidal Cat

     This summer, we have been forced to come to grips with the possibility that our cat is either a homicidal murderer, or a mob boss.

      It has been a weird summer for wild life, as in: Where Is The Wild Life? Usually in the Spring the several fox dens in our neighborhood are alive with moms and babies dashing across the street with their breakfast in their mouths. Our neighbors (Vesper's House) had a den in their back yard for years. We could not figure out why our cats were not targeted by the fox mom and babies every spring, until we became aware that one of our cats was a bird killer. And she would leave the bird at our back door, clearly to let us see how great a hunter she is, but also to leave it for the foxes to retrieve later in the evening. Like clockwork, good morning, dead bird. Good evening, bird gone. We finally figured the cat was catching birds for the foxes (fox?), and in return the fox(es) were leaving our cats alone. Brilliant strategy!
      However this year, there are no fox. Foxes? Fox-I. Fox. None. Zero. It's like they just vaporized. And when the predators disappear, the prey multiply. And multiply. Like rabbits. Because they are, in fact, rabbits.
       We are being over run by bunnies.
       I have never seen so many rabbits up here in my life.
       It isn't just the disappearance of the foxes. Fox? Fox-I. The coyotes are scarce as well this year. I have heard them maybe twice this summer. Usually I hear them nightly, jabbering and laughing their way up the street. Even if they aren't actually dancing up the street, the way sound bounces up
here it sounds like that is where they are. But not this year. Where are the coyotes?
        I dunno. I'm not here to answer those questions. If anyone reading this figures it out you can let me know.
        The point is the lack of predators and increased prey seems to have whetted the appetite of our felines.
         The first dead rabbit---a small one---was found on the back porch. Headless. We thought maybe the cat killed it and something else ate the head.
         The second dead rabbit---full sized adult---was found on the side porch. Also headless. Genoa and Harper began speculating how quickly the flies could eat a head. Maybe the flies ate the head, they said out loud to themselves, while Jim and I exchanged glances.
          The third dead rabbit---medium sized---was found yesterday in the yard. Also headless.
          At this point we have to ask ourselves what it is that our cat is trying to tell us.
          Is she simply demonstrating her vast hunting skills now that there are more rabbits available to hunt? Dropping them around the perimeter of the house to make sure we appreciate her trophies?
          Or is she the boss of an intense Kitty Crime Syndicate with whom we have somehow become sideways, and these decapitated hoppers are being left as a warning?
           We weren't sure which of the four cats was the killer, but we had our suspicions. She is all black with a tiny little white mark on her chest. A white tie. Only mobsters wear white ties. My suspicions were cinched today when I let her in and she brushed past me chewing on a cigar.
          How am I to figure out what we have done to offend the syndicate? The cat does not have opposable thumbs, she can't even scrawl the most minimal of hints. I'm left to my own devices, as I try to make eye contact and open tuna. "What'd we do?"
          She just looks at me with her swimming yellow eyes, bored. Laughing inside. I may never know...and because of my own inability to communicate with felines, innocent bunnies are being slaughtered.