Post by Lannie on Apr 4, 2014 15:49:36 GMT -5
Sorry, Heather, it wasn't you.
Rich actually had to shoot a stray once. I don't know if you remember Pippin, the big orange tomcat that decided to live with us 6 or 7 years back? Well, he had a brother, a black and white tuxedo that was wild as could be and was attacking our other cats whenever they went outside. He never tried to thump Pippin because Pippin must have weighed 30 pounds, but he bloodied Kato several times and he injured Dot a few times, too. The Pyrs won't run off a cat, so Rich had to finally go out one day and shoot the black and white cat. It hurt both of us SO BAD to do that, but we had to. And then Pippin wandered off to hunt one day right before a huge blizzard, and we never saw him again. I miss that big lug. Now HE was a barn cat, and a hunter extraordinaire, although he spent a lot of time in the house. Cats know how to be comfortable.
I would LOVE to have barn cats, but we don't have good shelter for them. There's no way for them to get into the hay room unless we leave the door open, and if we did that, everyone would be in there. We have outbuildings, but putting a cat-hole in one of them would just cause them to get filled up with snow in the winter. We leave the man-door on the garage across from the house open all the time, but because of the angle of the prevailing wind, not much snow gets in there. So they could live there, but that's not where all the mice are. We're still trying to figure something out. Rich thought maybe he could make a cat-house inside the dog pen or the horse barn or something. The dog pen is open on the south and west side, and just got a LOT of snow in it from the last blizzard (which for some reason came from the southeast), but the horse barn is protected. So maybe we'll do that.
Meanwhile, Twinkie is still waddling, and her belly is still squirming...
~Lannie
Rich actually had to shoot a stray once. I don't know if you remember Pippin, the big orange tomcat that decided to live with us 6 or 7 years back? Well, he had a brother, a black and white tuxedo that was wild as could be and was attacking our other cats whenever they went outside. He never tried to thump Pippin because Pippin must have weighed 30 pounds, but he bloodied Kato several times and he injured Dot a few times, too. The Pyrs won't run off a cat, so Rich had to finally go out one day and shoot the black and white cat. It hurt both of us SO BAD to do that, but we had to. And then Pippin wandered off to hunt one day right before a huge blizzard, and we never saw him again. I miss that big lug. Now HE was a barn cat, and a hunter extraordinaire, although he spent a lot of time in the house. Cats know how to be comfortable.
I would LOVE to have barn cats, but we don't have good shelter for them. There's no way for them to get into the hay room unless we leave the door open, and if we did that, everyone would be in there. We have outbuildings, but putting a cat-hole in one of them would just cause them to get filled up with snow in the winter. We leave the man-door on the garage across from the house open all the time, but because of the angle of the prevailing wind, not much snow gets in there. So they could live there, but that's not where all the mice are. We're still trying to figure something out. Rich thought maybe he could make a cat-house inside the dog pen or the horse barn or something. The dog pen is open on the south and west side, and just got a LOT of snow in it from the last blizzard (which for some reason came from the southeast), but the horse barn is protected. So maybe we'll do that.
Meanwhile, Twinkie is still waddling, and her belly is still squirming...
~Lannie