Well, that was a bit of excitement! My first 'little present'! Only this one wasn't that little! Eric somehow managed to catch a starling. It was so big that when he dived through the window with it (with Louigi hot on his tail!) I though that it must have died and he just found it. Then it started calling. Eric carried it all over the house growling at Louigi as he went, so I separated them (shut Loui in my room) and went to get a 'distraction' for Eric in the form of the fish-on-sticks that he loves so much. But he would not put it down. By this point it had stopped calling, so I figured that the shock had caused its expiration.

Eric was starting to look somewhat startled by now, and wandered into the kitchen. As I was praying that he would have the good sense to not take it under the kitchen unit, suddenly it was flying about the kitchen, there were feathers everywhere in a split second, Eric had dived into the sink to re-capture it. First things first, Eric was expelled from the room, and the back door was opened. Then the task of gently encouraging The Bird out of my house and away into safety. Easier said than done, but less fraught with danger now that the cats are out of the way.

To cut an already extended story to a swift conclusion, eventually The Bird left of its own device. Although there was a brief incident with me on a tool box holding a tea-towel and a frustrated Starling headed directly for my head. One in a million chances apparently don't happen nine times out of ten on this planet.

Eric is peeved at me for removing his toy, and there is a lot of clearing up to do. (Stressed animals and all that...)

I hasten to note, that this is an accurate representation of events, notably I neither dithered, nor panicked.