Guess who's coming to dinner?

I looked out the craft room window a few days ago and could not believe my eyes.  This is either a sharp-shinned or a Cooper's hawk sitting on top of my bluebird house.  My first thought was where was the mother bluebird?  Was she sitting inside the box?  Had she taken off in fright?  Luckily she was back on the nest later that day and I saw both bluebirds this morning.  I have not seen the hawk again.  We often have a red-tailed hawk in the tree across the street, but rarely see these hawks.  I was also privileged to see a pileated woodpecker cross the road in front of my car while on the way to the grocery store this morning. 

On a bittersweet note, my husband and I visited our local no-kill animal shelter last Friday.  We stopped by to drop off the canned food that we had accumulated during our cat's illness.  We tried to tempt her appetite with every brand on the market, grilled, classic, chunk, with gravy, without gravy, beef, chicken, shrimp, liver....  We filled a large box with all the food and trekked it across the river to the A.R.K. We took a tour through the cat area while we were there which was really hard.  I so miss my cat.  But there were many beautiful cats in cages just waiting for someone to give them a 'fur-ever' home.  I wanted to take each one home.  I fell in love with a little Persian and if she's still there when we get home from vacation, she will be coming home with us.  We have a ton of love waiting for her and I wasn't meant to be without a cat.