Jenny asked: Any new barn kitties yet? Anything new with ridding buddy's mustang? How about a snowman for Ramsey to play with?
No new barn cats at this point. Even if I wanted one, it's too cold. I’m not so sure I really want another
cat, even though I am being overrun with both mice and rabbits. I can’t have cats in the house
because I can’t breath well enough around them.
As for barn cats, I know I’m treading on dangerous ground here, but I
have always found that cats seem to kill far more birds than rodents. While I have am having a lot of trouble with mice and rabbits, who have created a six lane superhighway into the hay shed, it is no more trouble than I always have regardless of having had a cat. Farm Buddy has 6 cats and a great abundance of mice.
Moss was a perfect example of this, she routinely killed birds, but I never saw her kill a mouse. I did see her let a mouse run right over the top of her on several occasions. She was the reason I quite feeding the wild birds. I hated inviting them in here only to have her slaughter them. She would lurk under the feeder and kill 5-6 birds a day. Meanwhile, the mice, moles and rabbits run rampant.
Still, I have never gone out looking for a cat, but I always seem to end up with one anyways, usually a scrawny, anemic, pathetic creature who will die otherwise. There are just so darned many of them. I've occasionally entertained myself on the drive home from work in the Spring by counting the number of cats I see in the road in a single night. I think the record so far is 128. Most people either don't care or never believe me when I tell them their darling little pussy-cats are out wandering the roads at 2:00am. If they only knew what sweet, little Fluffy is out doing while they are off in dream land.
It won't surprise me at all if some pathetic stray finds its way to my barn and, sucker that I am....
***
There is quite a bit of news down at Riding Buddy's, I'm so behind, I don't know where to start.
Bailey is doing well. Turns out, she is a bit older than RB was told. More like six instead of four, which is OK, but some more training is definitely in order. Bailey is a very sweet mare, but also very dominant and quite the little princess. She gets sooooo mad at the haynets because they won't let her take the big bites she wants. Poor Bailey, she always thinks there is a pea under her mattress.
She really wants to boss everyone around and she has her other herd-mates out moving around much more than they would otherwise. Which is not a bad thing, the exercise is very good for them. Her tendency to want to be the boss does tend to spill over onto her human as well though, and that is not acceptable. She has an appointment on April 1st to go to the trainer who worked with Tessa, Gabe and Lakota. He really does a great job of instilling a good work ethic in a horse without any pain or fear. It will be just the thing for her little Highness.
Hawkeye really needs a post or two of his own. I will work on that.
***
As for a snowman for Ramsey....well, we talked about that last week. As I write this, there is yet another snowstorm going on with an additional 10-14 inches expected. What fun.
Moss was a perfect example of this, she routinely killed birds, but I never saw her kill a mouse. I did see her let a mouse run right over the top of her on several occasions. She was the reason I quite feeding the wild birds. I hated inviting them in here only to have her slaughter them. She would lurk under the feeder and kill 5-6 birds a day. Meanwhile, the mice, moles and rabbits run rampant.
Still, I have never gone out looking for a cat, but I always seem to end up with one anyways, usually a scrawny, anemic, pathetic creature who will die otherwise. There are just so darned many of them. I've occasionally entertained myself on the drive home from work in the Spring by counting the number of cats I see in the road in a single night. I think the record so far is 128. Most people either don't care or never believe me when I tell them their darling little pussy-cats are out wandering the roads at 2:00am. If they only knew what sweet, little Fluffy is out doing while they are off in dream land.
It won't surprise me at all if some pathetic stray finds its way to my barn and, sucker that I am....
***
There is quite a bit of news down at Riding Buddy's, I'm so behind, I don't know where to start.
Bailey is doing well. Turns out, she is a bit older than RB was told. More like six instead of four, which is OK, but some more training is definitely in order. Bailey is a very sweet mare, but also very dominant and quite the little princess. She gets sooooo mad at the haynets because they won't let her take the big bites she wants. Poor Bailey, she always thinks there is a pea under her mattress.
She really wants to boss everyone around and she has her other herd-mates out moving around much more than they would otherwise. Which is not a bad thing, the exercise is very good for them. Her tendency to want to be the boss does tend to spill over onto her human as well though, and that is not acceptable. She has an appointment on April 1st to go to the trainer who worked with Tessa, Gabe and Lakota. He really does a great job of instilling a good work ethic in a horse without any pain or fear. It will be just the thing for her little Highness.
Hawkeye really needs a post or two of his own. I will work on that.
***
As for a snowman for Ramsey....well, we talked about that last week. As I write this, there is yet another snowstorm going on with an additional 10-14 inches expected. What fun.
Okay blog readers, she has taken poetic license too far....I DO NOT HAVE ANY MICE IN MY HOUSE!!!!! I have six GREAT cats. Five are in the house (no I am not a crazy cat lady; there were circumstances beyond my control), and one cat is in the barn. ALL the cats are GREAT at getting mice. As a matter of fact, they are GREAT cats!! I love birds, and I do not let the cats outside at all in the daytime and only rarely for a jaunt in the evenings. Even if it is her BIRTHDAY, I can't let her get away with this statement! I just don't understand how she could have been a winter baby! This person should have a birthday in the spring like me! Happy Birthday, but quit slandering my cats!!
ReplyDeleteI guess the mouse I saw scurrying down the counter was really just another cat? And that mouse in the barn that Connor caught?
ReplyDeleteBlog readers...NO MICE. In case you are in doubt, I NEVER see mouse poop in the house. NEVER. You know they would leave that calling card. I even LIKE mice and try to rescue them if the cats catch one outside, but no poor mouse has the slightest chance in this house full of cabin-fevered cats. Now Kipper the barn cat is only loose when I am working in the barn, as she remains in the warmish milk house at other times, so yes there could be mice in the barn, but I swear that I never see them. Now pigeons are another thing.......
DeleteHappy Birthday and best wishes for sunshine, good health and mechanical things that run smoothly.
ReplyDeleteI love my cats, but then they don't cause me any breathing problems. I find that Martin catches mice when he wants to. He's caught far less birds (two that I know of). I don't worry so much about the barn but we also get them in our house so the cats are 'supposedly' to help with that. We'll see how the new kitten does.....
ReplyDeleteWell golly, Happy Birthday Dancing Kris. I'm with you on the birds and cats. I lost four robins' nests to the cats next door last spring, in the space of a couple of weeks. We also live just among the first open spaces outside a population center, so people dump cats here. A lot. My cats stay inside. All three hundred and eleven of them, darn it. ;( They'll probably all outlive me and I'll never have a clean house again, but the robins and the bluebirds are a little safer. Have a great birthday and stay warm.
ReplyDeleteCat Fight!!! :-D
ReplyDeleteBetsy caught a mouse in our house two days ago, but it's nowhere near as clean as your house, FB, so it wasn't a huge surprise. Well, it was a surprise she *caught* it maybe ;-).
Through the years, stray cats have arrived at my house, and the rodent population suffered the consequences. Last year, I was being over run with Antelope Squirrel (like chipmonks) and rabbits -- and then there were none. My neighbor told me that another feral cat had arrived and was living under his trailer -- mystery solved. You are having bad luck with cats -- the next stray will be the right one -- hopefully.
ReplyDeletehaha. a little bit of birthday banter going on. :)
ReplyDeleteYou all are so funny, as is the "Winter Breaking Point" video -- I feel all warmed up now! :D (And I know better than to tell you, on your birthday to boot, that it's a spring-like 40 F here, no snow...) I might tell you, though, that our last cat used to proudly bring us the mice he caught, alive and apparently unharmed. We never had mice in the house----until we got that pacifist kitten...
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Kris, and I second Sue S.'s wishes for you!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that part. I never had mice in the house either until I had a cat who stocked it up for me:)
DeleteWe have a VERY healthy population of barn and porch cats, and each differs in what/whether they hunt (many times passed along through the maternal line, it seems). Some will regularly go out and return with rodents from the surrounding pasture, but I never see them pay attention to or bring back a bird. Others are OBSESSED with the birds (these get run away from my house, where the feeders are, back to the barn - we have an attentive Corgi :-). Plus my feeders are all hung very high and in the open - no bushes or cover of any kind nearby. And some cats don't give a squat about either. I guess cats are like people - each is an individual! My daughter raised three boy kittens in our utility porch last fall (after our best mama cat disappeared) and they are each VERY different from each other. Be handy for you if they cam with labels detailing hunting preferences and other traits, ha! Deb
ReplyDeleteI heard about the snow heading your way. So sorry but also a tad jealous as we've had so little. Doesn't bode well for fire season. I like your description of "Her Highness" and understand so totally about the cat!
ReplyDeleteSo very sorry about all the snow, and the coming snow. UGH.
ReplyDeleteLove that little video! I have "indoor only" cats so they probably would run from a real mouse. But when you pop a top, they are all over it. Hope Mother Nature is a bit kinder to you all in the East.
ReplyDeleteLove the video and no, this was what our winter was like with 4" snow falls every other day instead of these monster ones!
ReplyDeleteOh my!
I'll be interested in how things go with Bailey!
I have a goal to start Princess under saddle this spring...hopefully work and remodeling allow me to get it done this time. Princess is a donkey.
She is pushy only around other donks when I am in the pasture.
Not pushy when working one on one.
She is a real nice lady to work with!
Stay safe on those roads!
Ouuu Look what i started. LOL Love that video. It's something i would do too.
ReplyDelete