jessie brought me in a lovely present this evening; a dead sparrow!
she came running in with it in her mouth from the garden, which I must
have missed as i did not know what a clever thing she had done until I
was in the bedroom being pestered by her with weird little miaows and
chirrups and called to follow her into the bathroom where she dumped
her lovely gift to me on the carpet in there.

she kept poking it with her little paws and looking up at me and
miaowing as if to say "look what I got you! don't you like it?" so I
had to give her lots of fuss and hugs and tell her what a wonderful
pussycat she was for catching such an enormous bird for me (it was
tiny actually, but still) and what a clever girl she is for killing it
(well she has no teeth left and is about 16 or 17 years old and
doesn't move so fast these days so it was quite a feat for her). After
a fair amount of grateful overtures from me she flopped down on the
carpet next to her treasure and purred so loudly, and lay there with a
face that said "yes, i am rather wonderful aren't I?" and seemed so
happy and pleased with herself.

I have to say I am touched by this little gesture, even if she didn't
actually make the kill herself, I am really touched by the fact that
she brought it upstairs to show me, that she brought me this little
gift. Maybe that is what it feels like for parents when their snotty
kid brings home some crappy drawing of themselves from school (you
know; triangle shaped bodies, arms and legs sticking out at odd
angles, line of blue across the top to represent the sky), but better
and without pinning it to the fridge door for everyone to see.

I have taken some photos of the bird and of jessie herself posing with
it on the bathroom floor and I will try to upload them at some point
to show you all, bless her little furry heart, she is just wonderful.

bookie ( who is considering baking a cake in the shape of a dead bird
to commemorate the occasion)