The Cardinals

Four pairs of Mourning doves are pecking the ground looking for anything that might be edible. Along comes Mr. Cardinal and his lovely mate.

Look dear, all them doves seem to be finding good things to eat. Lets go and check it out.
Mrs. Cardinal being of the nervous type, chirped in that she just didn't know if it was a good idea.
Mr. Cardinal being unafraid, leads the way.
The pair land in the tree and Mr. Cardinal says.. Now dear you just stay up here and keep watch, I'm sure these doves won't mind sharing.
He leaves her up on the branch, her protests could be heard by all the surrounding watchers.
The brave feats of Mr. Cardinal were well know among the cardinal community and many had come to watch.
He lands on the ground and looks around, hops over a few steps and still finds nothing.
Mrs. Cardinal is yelling...Careful, careful. She flutters from branch to branch to keep a better eye on him. What she sees alarms her. The doves are getting closer and closer to her hubby and he's not paying attention. It is beginning to look like they are surrounding him. She is in full panic now and yelling even louder. Enough! We can go somewhere else!
Mr. Cardinal flies up to her and tries to calm her. See dear, the doves are not even bothered by me, if they were then they would have drove me off by now.
Mrs. Cardinal calms herself and agrees that he is right, but her nerves wouldn't let her relax.
She asks did you find anything good to eat? Trying to find something else to focus on, which wasn't hard cause her tummy was hungry.
No, nothing. I just can't understand what these doves are finding that is soo good. I am going to give it one more try and then we can move on.
Once again he leaves his nervous wife in the tree and ventures down to the ground.
This time he thinks he has found something, he takes it up to her and they crack the shell. She takes one bite and says..this is awful!
He goes down again and still finds nothing new. Distraught over finding nothing he ventures away from the area a little bit.
He heard the rustle of the doves flying away and turned to see what was up. He was frozen in his spot by the stare of a huge orange CAT.
Suddenly he remembered his wife and all their friends were watching and he ruffled up his feathers and willed his body into motion.
His delayed response was almost the end for him. The cat leaped and barely missed his tail feathers, by a tooth. Mr. Cardinal felt the cats breathe on his tail and thought for sure this was it, the last day to fly, ever again.
When he landed on the tree branch, he was soo surprised he squawked as loudly as he could! He turned to look at his wife who had flew to his side, she was soo shocked and scared she was utterly speechless.
When Mrs. Cardinal finally got her feathers smoothed out and found her voice again. Dear do you think we can move on now? I have had enough of your risk taking ways for one day.
Mr. Cardinal agreed. Yes dear, this day has been a bit too much for me. I am ready to go home and nestle down for the evening.

And they were off.