Dead Birds and Bare Feet

Yuck.

Today Esther's cat Paisley made her first kill and presented a gift to us. Esther let Paisley and Acacia (my cat) out this morning to begin their life of playing in the yard. I have been observing Paisley perfecting her hunting skills recently. I have even observed her teaching Acacia the art of stalking prey :). Anyway this morning Paisley was outside for a while, then came to the backdoor meowing. We let her in, she brushed against Esther's leg, then went back to the door and Meowed. (Pais is an exceptionally smart cat and uses her actions to communicate). So, we went to the back door to see what was up. Lying right outside the door was a baby bird that Paisley has caught and brought to us as a present.
We congratulated her and told her that she did a job well done... even though we were a bit sad about the baby bird that was on our stoop. We let her bask in the glory of her hunt and then went outside to see how our plant are doing. when we went back into the house Esther picked up the bird and placed it in a bucket to deal with later.
A few minutes later Paisley was at the door again, Meowing and presenting her gift again. She was quite proud of her first capture. So esther decided to leave the bird there for a little while and pamper Paisley's obvious pride issues. Unfortunately Esther did not inform me of this decision and when I went outside to fine my flipflops (I was clearly barefoot), I cupped the tiny dead animal in the arch of my newly washed barefoot. My scream of clear shock and discussted-ness made Esther (who was in the bathroom at the time) inform me via shout that she had let Paisly put the bird back and to watch out for it......
too late.
I was mortified...
It reminded me of the time when I was a kid and my gold-fish jumped out of its bowl as I was walking by... again barefoot... and killed it. Dead. They both squished under my step. What a gross feeling!!!!
Yuck!