Last night at 3:45ish, I heard Zorba crying outside my window. Now Zorba's cries all sound the same. It's a deep throat, yet high pitched moan that sounds like a cat in pure toture. Knowing however, that this startling sound that woke me up was just my youngest cat, I went to the back door, opened it and let him inside.

Now, our normal early morning routine consists of him heading straight for the food and then straight for my bed where I try fruitlessly to fall back asleep. He jumps on my chest and begins licking my hands demanding to be pet and scratched to sleep. I usually comply. It is the responsibility of a mother.

But this morning Zorba didn't head straight for his dish or my bed. He sat in the living room and then outside my room and whined some more. This is not normal. Zorba only cries when he wants to be let into the house. Otherwise, he is just not a talker. He's a growler. He growls at me or Radley or a shoe when he's cranky, but he's not usually (unless he wants inside) a meower.

I was perplexed and cooed at him, coaxing him to be silent and go to bed. I refilled his dish with food, picked him up, tried to pet him, but to no avail. He always returned to moaning in the living room.

I eventually drifted back to sleep ignoring his mouth (another mark of a good mother). When I awoke in the morning however, Erin (my roommate) said, "Did you see the present the boys left for you last night?" Uh oh.

She heads off to the living room as I finish up brushing my teeth. "Oh no!," I hear. "It's gone!"

I enter the living room/dining room area and see a plethera of feathers, but no bird.

"There was a dead bird in here this morning when I let Radley in at 5am," she reported. "But it's gone now."

That's correct. The bird was gone: body, beak, feet and all. We searched to find it, supposing it had been batted underneith the couch, the chair, into my closet. No luck, no bird body. Only feathers fluttering about our feet.

So the babies struck again. Usually it's Radley who is my little hunter (remember the jay birds mom and dad?), but this was Zorba's fi