Darcy the Bird Killer

We have three cats; Sally, Tristan, and Darcy. Sally and Tristan are my sweet females, and Darcy (Named after Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy for the Austen fans out there.) is the somewhat standoffish, but occasional affectionate, male. They are litter mates and are about a year and a half old. Today, Darcy killed his first bird, and not a baby bird either, an adult bird so that says something about his hunting skills. This surprises me because when I have observed him stalking in the past he would always give himself away before he successfully pounced on his prey, so it seems he has suddenly developed some serious pouncing skills.
Now, I have a soft spot for birds because I think they are so pretty, and it tore at my heart a little bit when Rick told me that Darcy caught an adult bird today. All cat owners know that we cannot punish cats for killing prey, it is in their nature. When Darcy brought the struggling bird to show to Rick, Rick praised Darcy, but took the bird away from him and took it a block away and placed him under a tree. Unfortunately, the bird was too severely injured to survive. So, Darcy is going to be nicknamed BirdKiller from now on.

The wedding is 38 days away. We met with Deacon to go over some wedding plans. I have only been to one Catholic wedding in the past, and since I was the singer I was all the way up in the choir loft and I don't remember much of it. We discussed some simple questions and now things are looking clearer.
Rick and I have always talked about having a handfastening, which is an old Irish/Scottish tradition that was adopted in the early church from the pagans. (Think back to Braveheart.) When I was a practicing Wicca I was gun-ho on having a handfastening. When we were planning an elopement it is something we wanted to do. Now that I have moved away from the whole Wicca thing, I am not as gun-ho on doing the handfastening because I do not want to turn back to that life, at all. But since it is an old Scottish tradition it is a little important to Rick.
The priest who will be marrying us, Father Larry, is an expert on cults, the new age movement, demonic possessions, and things of that nature. I don't think he is going to be too keen on incorporating an old pagan tradition into the wedding ceremony, even if the Church at one point practiced it. But, we'll see. It is no longer very important to me. The only thing I care about is being married to the man I love in the sight of God. I cannot wait! I am so excited that I can barely sleep at night. I feel like a little kid getting ready to go to Disney World!