According to the creepy old magpie rhyme, seven indicates “a secret never to be told”. In this case, it’s not much of a secret: Louis Catorze is on the other side of the fence, winding them up, and they’re all cackling at him. If you zoom in, you can even see the bottom right one with its beak open, mid-caw:
Cat Daddy was so concerned that he actually went to look over the fence to check that his boy was all right. Not only was he perfectly fine, but he didn’t even appear to care about the apocalypse unfolding around him. The skies were darkening, the avian army was gathering, and all the while Sa Maj was happily slow-blinking away in the Zone Libre, enjoying the last few remaining rays of sun.
The same kitty sixth sense which informs him of when I am about to give him medication, somehow failed to alert him to this. In fact, WE were alerted long before Catorze was. I don’t think I will ever understand this.
Worse yet, I have just discovered that the French version of the creepy magpie rhyme says “Sept pies: enterrement”, which isn’t especially reassuring.
I really don’t want any trouble … yet I fear that is exactly what I will get.
jesuisleroisoleil 
When you stalk him with medicine or to put him in the cat carrier, you are clearly a threat. The magpies? No way!
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Ha! Maybe I should get Cat Daddy to do the pilling and the pre-vet entrapment for a change!
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Good luck with that!
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🤣🤣🤣
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You’re an optimist, aren’t ya 😉 I once had a magpie apocalypse on my balcony with, at the same time, a monster spider in my bedroom, and Calinette (my slave owner at the time) didn’t care at all about either! It was pretty disturbing.
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Oh God, were the magpies trying to warn you about the spider? That sounds horrendous. Catorze would be useless with a monster spider, yet if there were a harmless, almost-invisible bug at the other end of the room minding its own business, he would go into full attack mode.
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Magpies like cawing at each other. I don’t think the six ones you are talking about had your little Louis on their minds.
😺
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He was just out of sight on the other side of the fence! (Out of sight in terms of the photo but very much in their sight.) Cat Daddy went to check and saw them screeching at him. 😱😱😱
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I read on the Web : « There are several names given to a group of magpies, but perhaps the most descriptive is “a parliament.” ». Didn’t Cat Daddy recognize Lords when hearing them?
😺
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Oh gosh. I wonder what they were debating? And not long after this incident, again when Catorze was in exploratory mode, there were two sets of parakeets doing a strange call and response thing, with one set no doubt warning about the toothy black predator and the other saying, “Thanks for the heads up.”
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What does “entrement” mean ? I can’t use google translate on a single word.
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It means funeral or burial. 😱😱😱
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My son’s dog goes absolutely mad every timehe sees crows or ravens. What is it about corvids that unleashes such madness?
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Maybe the fact that they recognise the faces of those who have wronged them, and those of their descendants? 😱
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Possibly 🙂
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Will magpies attack?
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Most definitely. I once saw three of them taking it in turns to dive-bomb a cat that was on a shed roof, and that cat was huge. They’ve left Sa Maj alone so far but it’s only a matter of time.
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That’s awful. I wish him luck.
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Thanks. He will need it!
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