Repurposed spacecraft

As so often happens around here, a look out the kitchen window can reveal many wonders. Imagine my astonishment when I saw a little spacecraft hovering under the lower branches of our apricot tree. It seemed to be stuck because it kept tugging back and forth, up and down, but mostly staying in the same place. “Goodness,” I thought to myself, it seems to have gotten snagged on the wire hook I had put on the branch where I was planning to hang a bird feeder. As I watched in amazement, six teeny little people, barely bigger than fat mice, jumped out of the craft onto the ground. Soon after, little pieces of machinery were being thrown out of the craft! The six on the ground dragged them to a nearby gopher hole and tossed them in. They were stripping all the propulsion, navigation, surveillance and personal gear out so we humans couldn’t use it! Dang! I’ve encountered that kind of thing before and frankly I got very angry. Two more tiny people jumped to the ground, having finished the job. I started to leave the house to investigate and the cat shot by me out the door and chased all the little people into the gopher hole. Only the shell of the craft remained, swinging slowly on the hook. I was too late.

The following morning, the cat was still at the gopher hole. Suddenly he leapt and grabbed what seemed to be one of the little people. He strode toward the house with his prize, but when he arrived on the porch, it turned out it was a gopher. Wow, I thought—those little folks had transmogrified themselves into what looked like gophers! Such technology. Man, they’re clever! Hating to waste anything, I modified the shell of the ship into a bird feeder, probably saving maybe $25 or so.