Puppies

Years ago my neighbor had barn cats and you couldn't get near them. One time when me and my brother were little we ended up taking one of the kittens. She was a bit of an oddball, didn't like being inside even in the winter. We built an insulated box for her under the porch. One hell of a hunter, can't count how many birds she got

 

All my cats are fixed and only indoor cats.

I had three in the traps and they are in transport cages going to the vet which I’m leaving in a few for. Reset the traps and seeing what else they catch. The neighbor at the end of the road said they are from the old farm house across the cross road, apparently the owners can’t afford to get them fixed, so all of the neighbors are going to pay for it.

But right now they are welcomed, we all have a problem with mice and rats, the farmers silos across the road is the issue because he has been in the process of replacing them which has pushed the mice and rats to the homes.

We never had an issue with rats before, only mice and the reason I have cats. Cats won’t go after rats, there is something about the aggressiveness of the rat the cats won’t mess with. Dogs on the other hand are great ratters.

My neighbor has his trained security dogs which don’t do any ratting, I think they think it is beneath them but the two neighbors on the other side just imported (from England) Plummer Terriers and these little dogs are doing a great job getting rats. They already planned on getting the dogs last year and went through the process which had them released a month ago.

They started this past week ratting, going house to house on the road. They were here yesterday and killed 8 rats who were in the pole barn and shed, destroyed one nest.

They are next door this morning, trying to teach the neighbors dogs how to rat, those dogs are just sitting there watching the work, so far I see 4 dead rats on the steps of the deck.

Now my cats have worked hard keeping the mice at bay, the cats have the run of the house, garage and closed in porch. Someone left the garage door open too long and a bunch scurried into the garage which has been a problem. Since we have had them in the house before, they were never here like this so the cats are working hard to solve the problem. so far they got 9 mice in the last two days, one ended up on my pillow at 3am by the kitten … so much for that pillow and pillow case.

Last night I was sitting at the kitchen table as I am eating my dinner, watching my huge Russian blue walk across the kitchen floor with a mouse in his mouth like he was looking for my wife to give to her, instead he put it near the back door as to say “get out”. The cat is big but one of the best mousers we ever had was our late great tuxedo cat - Tux - 18 pounds and very fast and agile. He taught blu how to mouse, the cat was amazing, he jumped up on top of a door from the floor (and fall asleep there) and would pounce in a mouse from 8 feet away in a single jump.