Was it possible to have a love-hate relationship with the sunlight? While it was warm, it could quickly become too hot. It provided light, but could suddenly become blinding. Katarina hated those exact extremes, making spring a somber arrival for her. It was also overwhelming the “happy go lucky” attitude that seemed to just overflow from everything and everyone.
Gross.

As usual, during really anytime of the year, Kat was holed up in her darkly shrouded home, deep into her books. The dark colored curtains shifted the bright rays shining through the windows into deep blues and purples. That was well enough light for her to operate. Kept the main room cooler as well.

The spring cleaning rush had taken her neighbors by storm, and she could hear them scuttling around outside, chattering friendly between themselves. Another reason to stay inside-avoid the aimless chitchat. She had enough just to “clean” inside her home. The endless amounts of books and shelves were always needing a good dusting and organizing. Spring or not!

That was exactly what she had been planning to do after finishing the next chapter of her book when She was interrupted by a small commotion outside one of her windows. While she at first ignored it, she became unable to when the sound of little chitters and chirps reached her.

Stepping away from her open book, she approached her windowsill, nudging the curtain to the side. Looking out, she could see instantly what had been making the little sounds. A small fluff was planted on her sill, large oval eyes staring, They looked comically large on the tiny feathered body. The remnants of a broken egg littered around him, and The newborn continued to chirp loudly. He obviously was not happy to be there, confused and startled. And he wasn’t alone. Another chorus of chirrups were coming from below the window, on the ground. Must be more of them. Did a whole nest just, topple down? Hard the believe they would survive a fall like that, especially as it seemed they were only just hatching.

Katarina looked at the baby on her sill skeptically, already feeling inconvenienced. “How did you get here?” She said, her eyes lifting to look around her yard for an answer. But there didn’t seem to be any other disturbances. She sighed and brought her attention back to the chick.
“Now what I am to do with you?” She asked the tiny owlkitten , who just stared with wide eyes. She felt like they were almost accusing her of this predicament, like she had plopped the down there.
The mare grumbled in annoyance and left the window to head to the door. She wouldn’t the able to read, let alone think with all this baby bird noise. She would just have to move them.. somewhere? Where could the nest even be? Was there even a nest to go back to?
This was not what she wanted to be doing today. Maybe she could find a neighbor who would be knowledgeable enough about these babies to take them off her hands. That meant venturing out into the spring fever. The blue mare grudgingly collected a small blanket and basket, placing the fabric inside the carrier. She would just pop them in there and they would hopefully be someone else’s problem soon.

After stepping out of her home, Kat turned around the edge of her home to approach the window she had been at just before. The baby chirps were still going, and she could now see the few bundles of feathers hopping around on the ground. More egg fragments were at their feet. The baby on the windowsill turned his head to look at her, he seemed to be the ringleader here.
Kat figured she would grab him first to put in the basket, and the others would follow. As she approached however, another owlkitten egg caught her eye. It sat off to the left of her in the yard, settled on top of one of her empty plant pots. Now she knew this wasn’t an accident. These eggs were placed! Kat groaned in annoyance, finally reaching the hatched owlkits. That could only mean there were likely more around, a ‘lovely’ little game being played by someone. What a disaster to her day, she thought. Kat didn’t want owlkits crying all over her yard. For one the noise, but two, the parents. They couldn’t be far away, and even if she hadn’t been the one to take the eggs, that wouldn’t matter to angry parents. Especially birds as big as owl cats. She needed to quickly collect all the ones she could find and get there somewhere off her yard and where the parents could get them without taking their panic out on her.
Guess she ended up with some spring cleaning to do outside after all. Bummer.