The Humming...bird

“Cheese, is that your stomach?” Banana looked disgustedly at the other cat, who was lying on his back in the sun, as sprawled out as a creature can be. It was late summer, and the cats were on the porch, soaking up as much sun as they could. They knew autumn was coming, and then winter, when the nice warm sun would be hibernating (or so it felt).

“Huh?” Cheese looked confused. “I just ate 3 minutes ago, Banana. You might be hungry again, but I’m not.” Cheese rolled over and gave the other cat his full attention. “What are you talking about?”

Banana tilted her head and listened again. “What IS that noise? It’s getting louder. Now it sounds like a buzz bug [cicada], but not really. Do you hear it? Now it sounds like Twitch when she’s happy.” Banana jumped up on the window ledge, excited to see their friend. “Hey, Twitch! Where are you?”

But Twitch was nowhere in sight.

The sound was getting louder, and Banana was getting more curious by the moment. She ran around the porch, stopping lots to look out the screens. Cheese watched her while he stretched his body from one end to the other. She didn’t know it, but he was laughing at her…on the inside. He was a smart cat, and knew how angry she could get, and how much she weighed when she pounced on him...

He let her run and wonder a little bit longer, and then he couldn’t hold the laugh in anymore. He snorted, “You really don’t know where that noise is coming from? Ha! Look up!” He pointed with his paw at a red object, hanging on the outside of the porch on the rain-runs-down thing [gutter].

Banana stopped her running, and looked toward the red object. There was something hovering there in the air, but it was moving too fast for her to get a good look at it. For 5.84 seconds, it sat on the edge of the red thing, and she could see it was a…bird!

“Cheese! I see it! Let’s go get a closer ‘look’ at it!” Banana started to drool a little, because her idea of looking was to watch the bird fly into her mouth. She could almost taste it.

“Good luck, Banana. Those birds fly faster than all the other birds in our yard [25-30 mph actually]. That’s a hummingbird, Banana. It likes the sugar water that Gale and Karen put in that red thing. That sound is the noise its’ wings make when it flies—I sat here yesterday and watched it all day!”

“Hmmmm….” Banana considered this.

“No, humming…hummingbird.” Cheese explained. “But you know the real reason hummingbirds hum, don’t you, Banana?” Cheese put his paw over his mouth, trying to hold in a laugh.

“No, why?” Banana sat down, waiting for the explanation.

“Because they don’t know the WORDS!!!” Cheese rolled over and gave in to the laugh that exploded from inside of him. It felt good.

For more information about Hummingbirds:

http://www.hummingbirds.net/about.html