Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:28 pm Post subject: Visitor identified
We have known for a while that there has been a cat visiting at the barn. We already have 1 barn cat named Quigly. He's a pretty fella. We wanted to get another cat to keep him company and help him with his work. So when the other cat started visiting we weren't upset. We caught glimpses and knew it was a female as it was a gray calico. Then she started sleeping in Quigg's bed. He prefers to sleep in the hay so she didn't boot him out or anything. Whenever we come to the barn she makes herself scarce. Today it was so cold she decided she would stick around and trust us. We put the food out and both of them ate like they were starving. Hunting must be slim in all this ice and snow. She let me pet her and she was rubbing on my hand and purring. She is not a calico but a gray tabby that looks like Quigg's but she has no white on her. For sure a girl though and unless I miss my guess, she will be having a litter of kittens. I don't mind feeding cats as long as they keep the barn free of rats. I'd rather feed a clean cat than a dirty rat every day of the week. Here they are before I served seconds. I'll have to get a bigger bowl. LOL We are calling her Mineu ( me new ). It's a popular cajun name for cats.
The reason I said that was that a few years ago my dad had one or two cats on his country place and over time they became a real problem because they multiplied unbelievably. Finally one of the terrible cat diseases bumped every one of them off including their house cat that they just loved. It was so sad seeing all the sick and dying cats and kittens and a sight I shall not soon forget. Sorry for the gloom and doom but I would hate for you to have to experience that sort of thing as much as you love animals. I am by cats like you are by horses. I don't want to see any of them mistreated or suffering.
Having one or two cats at the barn that are altered and have their shots is far preferable to me. We had one kitty years ago that was such an awesome mouser that she would even catch young rats and she wasn't much bigger than they were. We used to take her up to the bqrn and then just sit quietly and watch her work. She was unreal.
Also, did you know that a cat will not catch mice if the mother cat didn't teach them to do so. It is something they have to be taught.
That wonderful mouser would also catch little rabbits. One Thanksgiving, my dad had gone rabbit hunting with the guys before dinner. When they came in for dinner, my dad put the rabbits they had just killed in the corner of the room to clean after dinner. While we were eating I looked over in the corner and there was our precious smaller than usual female cat dragging one of those huge rabbits away from the group. She must have thought the Lord had sent her a bountiful gift and she was trying to pull it aside for herself.
Well, enough cat/mouse/rabbit talk. I need to go eat lunch and take my beauty nap. It is badly needed today cause I think I pretty much look like a bedraggled street person. We have been dragging stuff out of the attic and starting to clean it. Oh, my! A lifetime of putting stuff up there is really coming back to haunt me.
So sad about the cats. There are lots of cats up and down the hollow. I'm sure she came from one of the houses around but she wasn't well cared for. She is a nice cat and I hope a good hunter. Quiggs is a good hunter. Here is a pic of her today. You can see the angular shape she has because she is thin. You can easily feel her hips and spine. But she has a belly so that is what makes me think she is going to have kittens.
She is a pretty cat. I figure you are 100% correct about the kittens. One other thing I remember from the farm is that rats will kill kittens and so will male cats. I remember finding kittens that the cat I told about had left for a short while and something ate their heads off. I was grossed to the max as the kids used to say. All 4 of the darlings were dead. Hopefully your male cat won't bother but it is a thing that mama kitties have to contend with. For that reason, we used to keep our mama and babies in safe places such as our outside wash room and let her out for runs and then put her back until the kittens were older. I don't remember when we decided it would be ok.
Note: We had a washroom that wasn't in the house back in those days in Louisiana. That was before automatic washers. Anyone remember those days. I am talking wringer washer with two rinse tubs on a table!!!!!!!
I think if you just have 1 tom cat it's not a problem. A visiting tom might be a different story.
We had a wash shed that used to house the washing machine. Didn't have a dryer. The hot water heater and the freezer were in it too.
When my Mom was 7yo she got her arm caught in a ringer washer. Pulled it in up past her elbow before Grandma could get it unplugged. She still has a big scar from it.
Must have been a Louisiana thing. Ours housed the washer, hot water heater and the freezer too. It had a concrete floor with a drain for the water to run out onto the garden.
Mother used to be the best cook in the world, to the point of winning MANY blue ribbons at fairs for her canning and other food related items. She loved to do a lot of baking and would freeze lots of items in our large chest type freezer. I used to make late night raids (I have been a night owl all my life) out there to find cookies that she had put away till another time. I never ever talked to her about it but she surely must have known it was not a burgular doing that. Now that I think about it, wonder if my 2 sisters were doing the same thing. We never met out there so maybe not. They never put a lock on the washroom so I don't guess it bothered anyone. LOL!
That was at the house where we lived when I was born and until I was about 14. My brother has lived there since we moved all those years ago and the same shed is still there. He has an indoor laundry room now and I'm not sure but I think his hot water heater and freezer are still in the shed.
Funny story. He had a big chest freezer in the shed. He used his freezer in the house to cook out of and replenished it out of his stock in the shed freezer. He didn't often get stuff from the shed freezer. Somehow the shed freezer got unplugged. It was about 3 months later when he went to get something out of it and I don't think I have to tell you what it looked or smelled like. He slammed the lid and plugged it back in. A few days later when it was frozen hard, he loaded it on the trailer behind the tractor and pulled it deep into the woods where he unloaded it and left it. There is no way he would ever have been able to get it clean. He bought a new freezer.
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Ours housed the washer, hot water heater and the freezer too. It had a concrete floor with a drain for the water to run out onto the garden.