Of rain and sparrows

My husband says that when it rains heavily and the birds seek shelter, the rain will stop soon. But that when it rains heavily and the birds continue as if nothing was going on, it's going to rain for a while.

It's been raining now for two days here, but I can't complain because the temperatures dropped from the 90s to the 70s and the flowers and the trees and the grass and all that's green and colorful is drinking it in gratefully.

But if the sparrow prediction system is accurate, it appears we will have rain for days. That's because every single sparrow in our neighborhood, in the hundreds it seems, appears to have come to our yard to feed. And they're doing so happily and unconcernedly despite the pouring rain.

This morning, my husband had to chase away a big, fluffy dark cat who has taken to prowling around our porch for birds. We now know the cat is also after something else: our chipmunk, who moved her/his whereabouts from our backyard to our front porch.

I hadn't seen the chipmunk in weeks and had begun to fear he was a casualty of the Garage Mahal construction but today I saw a quick, little shadow scurrying around the porch and thought it was the chipmunk. Later, my husband confirmed my suspicions when he said he'd seen the chipmunk on the porch, digging in the potted plants.

After brunch, my husband saw the cat, which is fat and obviously not in need of sustenance, chasing the chipmunk. He went out in the pouring rain to shoo the cat and succeeded. Happily, the chipmunk will live to see another day (and to dig in my potted plants!).

It's a jungle out there, let me tell you, even in this urban setting. What with the cats and the hawks, we have a veritable Discovery or Animal Channel special going on all the time. Instead of Meerkat Manor, we have a sort of Chateau Sparrow.

And the cute, active sparrows make a rainy Sunday even nicer. There's a siesta quality to rainy Sundays that makes the gray skies and the pit patter of the raindrops outside the window not only bearable, but enjoyable.

Unlike the sparrows, who scoff at rain and will go about their daily business under the downpour, I'm finally going to venture outside to do what I have get accomplished today. But that's only because the rain has abated.