"My cat caught an eagle!" a true Jimena story

(Carefully cropped illustration only)

The phone rang. It was a friend of Prospero, recently arrived in the village but who shall remain nameless for reasons best illustrated below. "My cat caught an eagle! What should I do?" was the essence of her call before it almost burst into panic. Prospero, although immune to many things, was befuddled. It did seem unlikely, a cat catching an eagle, albeit a small one. "It's spotted, gray and has enormous talons!" Hysteria was approaching fast. Prospero suggested the possibility that this might be another kind of plumed creature (he can just about tell a pigeon from a sparrow), perhaps a hawk - something smaller than an eagle anyway. Can you imagine the trouble a cat would have dragging an eagle into the house? Mice, little birds, rats even, but an eagle? "The cat had a lot of trouble bringing it into the house! It's in the biggest cat carrier I have!" True, she has a whole lot of cats but P guessed it was the bird in the cage, not the cat. Was this a collaborative effort then? "Take it round to the vet. He'll know what to do, or who to call," advised Prosp.>>>
A while later, still puzzled by the eagle thing but not yet wanting to call the lady in case she's still at the vet's with the caged winged beast caught by the cat, P ran into the lady's daughter.

She was in the square with a couple of local friends, who had apparently been able to identify the bird.

"What happened to the eagle?" Prospero badgered the girl, noticing a wry smile emerging.

"What eagle? It was a quail!"

This happened on Friday. It is a relief to Prosp that he is not the only one to have very little knowledge of the local fauna. He has not communicated with his friend since the event, nor has she with him...

(Do you have a local animal story? Click on 'comments' below)