Pics of Pets
- Thread starter fiddlefye
- Start date
That mouse looks pretty motionless, I think he's already had the shit thoroughly smacked out of him.
That appears to be a rather large cat! Beautiful colors & pattern
mfrench
Senior Member
Actually, shes very small. We've had her to the vet clininc twice, and she weighed 4.5lbs at each visit. She barely makes a half size cat at that weight. But she is an extremely athletic cat. She literally runs up and down our trees all day every day. I watched her take three oaks and make them into a triangular playground just two days ago. She'd blast up one tree, back down it, and up the other two in an instant. I've seen her leaping branches to 60' up in the oak trees. She flies in the trees (but is a mouser, not a birder, make no mistake).
She came to us from our wild edge, which is several acres of vacant land, with the owners house on the other side of a hill behind us. It is likely 15 acres.
Her previous owners sold their place and, she got left behind. We think she was a barn cat, and not a cherished pet.
Bottom line,.... she lived on her own for at least a year and a half, living off of what she caught, in an area with a huge amount of Coyote packs that come around every night.
Then she found our place, and started living on the roof, in under a change in the roof line, to escape the Coyotes. That change in the roofline created an overhead roof cover for her. She had to make a huge leap from a rock terrace that I built, up onto our patio cover, and then onto the roof.
My wife noticed her making that ground to rood, and, roof to ground leap, and suggested that we had a cat living on our roof.
Then, one day, I just kept following her, and she'd stay a short distance away, avoiding me. After a short time of this, she consented, and dropped to her side, and let me pet her, and pick her up.
I went up to where she was sleeping on the roof, and made her a nice waterproof/windproof enclosed space, with scribed plywood cut to fit the space to give a windblock. I also made her a little nest space with two pieces of rubber-backed carpet rectangles from the Dollar Store. i fitted them together to create weatherproof bedding for her. She made it through our first winter rains this way.
Then, Sarge started to weaken, and our spare bedroom became Kittys room, complete with her own twin bed that no one else has ever used.
Quickly, she got run of the house on the nighttime shift; we have a 35 year old Cockatiel as our long term pet, and, Jasper the 'tiel gets the daytime shift.
Now, Kitty sleeps on a small bed that I made for her that I keep on the corner of my bed. It is a CD case depth plastic box, filled with a piece of mattress pad, and covered in her favorite blanket. To that, Sarge sewed her a double thick spun-poly baby blanket that I keep her covered up with.
Shes no longer a barn cat, but, she is absolutely a geek when it comes to going out first thing in the morning. She goes out at the earliest of safe sunlight, and is done with her day, and ready for her own bedroom by noon, or so; apprx. 6 hours later. She stays in her room until early evening, when Jasper goes to bed. From early evening 5pm or so, until I go to bed, she gets the run of the house. Then she sleeps with me in the Music Room.
FWIW,... that mouse in the image above,.... That was number two for her morning.
This is number one of that same morning, and ony about five minutes earlier. I took mouse number one from her, and dispatched it. by the time I was done pitching that first mouse up slope, Kitty came back with that mouse from the images above.
This was mouse number one of that morning.
Her first mouse of that same morning:
And, this is her with a Rat:
What a good hunter she is!
What a cool back story! I could picture her walking across the desert and seeing your house in the distance. And only 4.5 lbs, wow! She does appear to have some muscle from all that exploring and hunting.
mfrench
Senior Member
She got here, and decided to stay.
And, she seems to understand our property lines. We have an acre, and, she knows the perimeter, and only barely goes wide of the boundaries. I do a lot of work on the periphery, in things like weed whackin', and, property maintenance. So I guess maybe she smells me in that perimeter? She also seems to know better than to get near the road.
At the time that we realized that we had a cat, I also started seeing what I thought was a Bobcat. When he'd see either my wife or myself, he'd take off running in a panic, and disappear.
His tail was either naturally bobbed, or, Coyote removed. What was left was a stub of a tail, that appeared to be naturally bobbed. So, with his large size, and, markings, and bobbed tail, I assumed it was a Bobcat. It was a feral male cat, and a very large one. He had all of his junk still attached.
Eventually, he started becoming more tolerant of us, and not running away. So, we started feeding him and Kitty. It finally got to a point where he came onto our patio, and, even allowed me to touch him while he was feeding. He greeted us with a hiss, and ears back, but no aggression.
Because of his bobbed tail, we took to calling him Halfy. He resembled a Bobcat, and had me fooled for a while, as the only time I saw him was him clearing a fence 100' away, and running away from us as quickly as he could.
Halfy:
Halfy probably tripled Kittys weight. But, Kitty kept him in check. She'd swat him away if he became too aggressive (read: amorous). They're sharing a bowl of water, here (Kitty - right, Halfy - left):
Kitty on the left - Halfy on the right, eating.
Halfy was an older cat, and had arthritis in his rear hips, which slowed him down. Sadly, he either got Coyoted, or, run over, as he quit coming around. To Kitty, this was a relief.
I got to liking Halfy.
In our 12+ years here, these are the only two cats that I've ever seen here.
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Wow, those are some great pics and next chapter of the story! I wonder where he came from originally? Seems like it was meant to be. You also have some fantastic succulents in that yard, looks great.
There's actually a street cat without a collar that's been coming around often, brushing against the bushes in the yard and laying around. He was very timid at first, and I did try to give him some small pieces of cheese, but he didn't care for it. He'll brush up against me if I sit down, but doesn't like to be petted much. I ended up grabbing some kitty snacks with my groceries recently and when he came around again, I shared them, now I think were friends.
I grew up with dogs and have always been around them, but haven't had any in almost 4 years now. I can't have any pets here in the townhome either. It's been pretty lonely without.