Who'd want to be a cat anyway?

There's been a street cat that has wandered into the compound a few times, absolutely starving and apparently with kittens. I tried to feed it once, but it ran away, however I was more worried about what this could potentially mean for my poor scrawny chicken. I mean, he doesn't look like he'd have a hope in the world against a cat. Today it came wandering in again, yowling pitifully and clearly needing some extra body weight. So I went inside to get it some food, turned around and almost stepped on it as she'd followed me in out of desperation. A huge difference from her nervousness of the other days. Anyway, I took the food outside, and she gulped it down. Didn't want to make her sick so ignored her complaints of 'more, more', and just sat there enjoying the sun for a while. All of a sudden the still not yet named fowl wandered round the corner. So I got some food for him, and put it out. He walked over in his slow casual way to claim his meal, while at the same time the cat decided this was a good opportunity for it. All was fine, until they hit that point where they entered into each others' bubble of personal space. Uh oh. Both animals froze, and for a few seconds there was this stalemate while each tried to work out the other's intentions.

Picture this. Cat takes two steps towards chicken. Chicken leaps at Cat. Cat changes its mind. Sits down and steadfastly looks anywhere but at chicken. Chicken remains fluffed up for a bit longer, then decides cat is only mild threat. Eats food. Cat watches in misery.

It was hilarious. My chicken is actually tough! How cool is that. The best thing is I no longer have to worry about leaving him out during the day. I figure he's earnt his independence now.