Baldur Bjarnason

Cat and Raven Photos (31 March 2025)

– Baldur Bjarnason

So, a bit of local drama. The small striped cat in these pictures is a new neighbour. I’m guessing a new inhabitant of this street. What this poor kitty doesn’t realise is that they’re venturing into the territory of the local cat “familia”. A couple of them are friendly, like the calico in the final photo here (her name is Skotta), doing the whole slow-blinking “I come in peace thing” that cats do.

This cat kind of knows they're sneaking into hostile territory. You can tell by the way they inspect their surroundings as they walk towards the fence Now completely in 'sneak' mode the cat walks further along the bottom of the fence Full of courage, the new cat is sitting on the fence, my neighbour's old tractor is in the background The new cat and Skotta, one of the locals, are facing each other on the fence but going through the friendly motions that cats do

Skotta’s siblings, Loðmundur and Grása, however are much fonder of the “smack you into next Sunday” kind of diplomacy. The new cat very sensibly scarpered as soon as they ran onto the scene, ready to rumble. Grása is the grey and white long-haired female cat while Loðmundur is her even longer-haired striped and white brother. Skotta is their easygoing calico sister whose goal in life is, very sensibly, to do as little as possible.

The three siblings are now on the fence, looking in the direction where the new cat wisely fled. Grása, a grey and white cat, sitting on the fence. Loðmundur, a striped and white cat, also sitting on the fence. Skotta, a calico-patterned cat, looking very relaxed and lazy.

This raven was on my neighbour’s garage the other day, belting out a rendition of “the loud proud song of ravenkind” with great enthusiasm.

A raven perched on a red-roofed garage, quite clearly mid-croak.