I am going to tell you a story. Late last night our cat, Woody, had been outside all evening, and when he knocked to come in around 11 o'clock, we were packing it in for the night. I opened the kitchen door and he was proudly sitting beside a large, rumpled, full-sized partridge. I said out loud, "Woody, what have you done?" Woody hopped over the crumpled bird and scooted past me to get to his dish of food. There were lots of feathers on the landing outside the kitchen door and the body of the bird lay motionless in front of me. Because it was late and I figured there was noting we could do for the bird now, I told Fred not to bother with cleaning up the feathers and burying the poor creature - we'd do it together in the morning. We wondered how in the world Woody could get a bird that big in through his kitty door. On the other hand, perhaps the bird flew into the garage when the overhead door was open sometime during the day, but being a partridge, we doubted that. We wondered if it was one of the birds that hangs out between our driveway and Jamie and Marie's each year. We've always thought they nest in there. That made us sad to think there might be eggs or worse, chicks that would now likely perish.
     I proceeded to get ready for bed and a few minutes later Fred called out to me, "I just looked and there's no bird there!" 
     I couldn't believe it. Woody was on his bench, ready to settle down for the night, so we knew he couldn't have moved his catch, so obviously the bird had been "playing possum." Fred said when he opened the door to look, there was a noise and feathers were floating off the stoop where the bird had been. We decided to leave the overhead door open enough so if it wasn't too badly injured, the bird could get out during the night, and we turned out the lights.
     First thing this morning, Fred looked for the bird and didn't see anything, so we figured the bird had made it out ok. A little later, I opened the door to go into the garage to put out some newspapers for recycling, and as I started down the steps, the partridge flew up from in front of the car. I could see it overhead sitting still as a statue on one of the rafters. Now we knew - the bird was alive and could fly, so we left the door wide open and figured it would leave. But several hours later, it was still sitting in the rafters.
     It took a while, but we finally were able to herd the bird away from there, but then it flew onto the garage door, out of reach, and stupidly just sat there. I thought if I started to put the door down it would move to one side or the other and fly away through the opening, but instead it refused to move. I stopped the door before the dumb bird got caught going over the edge.  It finally hopped onto the track that controls the door and perched there. Fred was able to reach in with the rod we use to clean the chimney and worked the bird off the door into a corner where it could see the big open space and freedom - and it finally glided down the driveway and into the woods. 
     We will never know the whole story of how Woody captured that partridge, but we are very happy the bird appeared to be ok except for losing a bunch of feathers. I got the feathers swept up after a while, but there are still a few that float up unexpectedly when the breeze changes. And there is at least one in the kitty door. All soft body feathers - no quills. At least Woody brought his trophy to us still alive; but I wish I had picked the bird up when I first opened the door last night. I would have known he was alive and could have saved the bird and us a lot of anxiety. At least it was smart of the partridge to play dead so Woody lost interest.
     After the partridge was freed, we took a short road trip to Greensboro to explore the Highland Center for the Arts. It is a beautiful venue - fresh and new, with a cafe, theater, studio for exercise classes and movies, art gallery and a lovely patio with nice landscaping. Greensboro is a very pretty little town and there is a lot going on there, especially in the summer. We had lunch in the cafe at the Highland Center, and enjoyed the food - everything was delicious and the prices reasonable. It was a very lovely setting and although not overly busy, there were several tables occupied. Not bad for middle of the week, I expect.
    We were surprised to find there is apparently a clown school just down the road from the Highland Center - we saw some of the youngsters in costume heading for the big tents where they apparently have classes. Pretty neat.
We visited Willey's Store and then parked at the beach nearby to have ice cream. We plan to go back to the Highland Center again - perhaps for a show, and certainly for a meal when the spirit moves. 
     Susan Abbott's paintings are on exhibit now; she will be at the opening and reception this Friday from 5-7:30 pm. To find out more about the Highland Center for the Arts and upcoming events, click HERE.
(Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.)