Last evening, just after sunset, five small birds congregated atop the utility pole in front of my house. They chirped furiously for several minutes, then flew away one by one. I'm wondering if it had something to do with the missing bird. For several days, there was a small bird which hopped about on the lawn every evening, seemingly oblivious to the cats. Oddly, the cats ignored the bird, too, even when it came near them. This was particularly surprising behavior from Sugar, the younger cat. She loves to stalk birds, but this bird would come within five or six feet of her, chirping and pecking at the grass, and the cat would give the bird no more than a glance. I kept expecting the cat to pounce on the bird, but she never did. Then, late Thursday evening, I went out to find Sugar munching something. It was a bird of the same type as that which had been hanging about. I didn't know that it was the same bird, but when I was out this evening, that bird was nowhere to be seen. I guess Sugar finally was unable to resist the bird's suicidal behavior. Maybe the small congregation atop the utility pole was attending a funeral service. I'll miss that foolish bird, myself.
My brain is still weird, even though whatever it is that I'm infected with has not yet developed into a full-blown anything in particular. Just a bunch of odd, annoying symptoms that may or may not be a cold.