The Cats Are Slacking!

Smoky Cat Takes A Break

 

 

 

 

When we purchased our property the previous owner asked us if we wanted a few barn cats.  We agreed to a few, but it turned out that our idea of “few” and his were extremely different.  We thought maybe two or three cats; the previous owner left us about twenty cats!

Over the years our cat herd has reduced, illness, coyotes and owls have all played a part in lowering the cat population and eventually we got down to three cats.  One female gray cat who is one of the original group that was left here, one of the gray cats sons or daughters (we’ve never been able to get close enough to check if that cat is a he or a she) and Kit Cat, a Siamese cross who was dumped out here shortly after we moved in.  We were content to have the three cats, but then as often happens when you live in the country all of a sudden a couple more cats appeared, a beautiful smoky grey tom cat and a fluffy black and white cat who likes to talk to you all the time.   

 

 The snake wasn’t bothering anything, it was sitting basking in the sunshine, but it was pointed in the direction of the girls pasture.   It was about two foot long and had a definite rattle on the end of its tail.  If it had been a bull snake or other harmless snake I would have moved it to another area of the property, but to have a rattlesnake headed toward the girls pasture was not a good prospect, the snake would have to go.

 Alpacas tend not to do very well in snake bite situations, with several small cria running around the chances were too great that one of them would stick his or her nose on the snake out of curiosity should the snake make it into the pasture.

 Fortunately one of the neighbors was home and was able to come and kill the snake for me.  I wasn’t sure that my aim would have been accurate enough to kill the snake with one hit and the last thing I wanted was a hurt angry snake to deal with.

Here's Grey Cat also taking a break - these cats need to get to work!

 While waiting for my neighbor to arrive, one of the cats actually passed the snake, sniffed the snakes tail and then walked on again without even giving a second thought to taking the snake on.  I guess the snake was too inactive to keep the cats attention, but it would have been nice for the cat to at least try and do her job! 

Hopefully that will be the last snake I see for a while, although with the lovely warm fall days we have been having there is a chance than another snake or two might make and appearance.  Let’s hope that if that is the case the cats decide to do their job and keep the snakes at bay!

 

Rosemary

Kit Cat – also taking a break

The cats are supposed to keep the mice and snakes down, when we had a larger cat population we had very few mice and snakes but as the population dwindled we noticed evidence of mice in the feed area and mice of course will attract snakes.On Thursday afternoon I headed out early to start on chores.  It was a beautiful afternoon with temperatures in the high seventies.  As I passed the feed barn on the way to the hay area I saw something lying on the ground and initially didn’t think too much of it, but something made me stop and take a better look – it was a rattlesnake!