The first time I noticed one of the cats sitting under a birdhouse, it wasn't doing anything. Just sitting there. Tucked halfway into the brush at the base of the post, head tilted up, eyes fixed on the box.
No crouching. No twitching tail. No movement at all. Just patience.
At first I didn't think much about it. The cat wasn't bothering anything. It wasn't climbing the post or stalking around the yard. It was simply sitting there looking up. After seeing it a few more times, though, I started paying closer attention.
We've got a couple of outdoor cats that showed up one day and never left. Every now and then I'll look out the window and see one sitting below a birdhouse, staring upward like it has all afternoon. They don't look aggressive. They look certain, like they know something might happen eventually and they're willing to wait for it.
That's when I started thinking about everything around the birdhouse. Things I'd never really considered from a cat's point of view.
A fence rail could become a ladder. A tree trunk might offer a way up. Nearby branches could make reaching a birdhouse easier, and thick shrubs give a cat somewhere to hide.
Before long I found myself looking at the yard a little differently.
Now when I hang a birdhouse, whether it's on a tree or a post, I don't just look at the house itself. I step back and look at the fence line, the trees, the shrubs, and anything else nearby. I'm not asking where the birdhouse looks best anymore. I'm asking how a patient cat might see it.
The funny thing is, the birds seem to be watching things just as closely. I've seen them land nearby and look around before going into a house. Sometimes they'll sit there for a while, and other times they'll take off without going in at all. I can't say what they're looking for, but I imagine a cat sitting underneath wouldn't be much of a selling point.
The cats still sit under the posts sometimes.
And every now and then, I'll catch one looking up at a birdhouse.
Apparently, I'm not the only one checking out the real estate.