Caught in the act

[LMTC]

We had a kitten wander in here a year ago and the dogs let it stay (very surprising). It wore out the chipmunks around here. Unfortunately, cats are not at the top of the food chain, and a few days ago a pair (mating, I presume? Didn't think they hunt in tandem) of hawks taught him that lesson. The one was probably 16-18" tall...biggest hawk I have ever seen. Now we have a hawk problem.

 

[MLinOleMiss]

"Show me a good mouser and I'll show you a cat with bad breath." /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Garfield

 

[40Kchicks]

Our cat spends half the time inside and half outside. Sometime we will come home and the cat will be taking a nap in the bath tub with a mouse that she has caught. They are always alive and healthy but can't get out because of the tall slick tub walls. My wife can not even see a rodent so I take care of them.

What I enjoy is watching the dogs hunt for rodents. When we first moved to the chicken farm it was infested with rats. It didn’t take long for my dog to figure out how to hunt them. She really took to that. We baited and got rid of the rats for five years then this year they were back. So far this spring the dogs have killed four of them and bait has got at least that many. The other day my nine year old son wanted to help me with the skid steer. It has joystick controls so its easy for him to use. I went to get it started and I saw a flash of movement. I told Chase that there was a mouse in the cab. He looked in and didn’t see anything so he thought I was kidding. I looked in again and the flash went under the cab and seat. Chase still didn’t believe me so I started it and he headed up the driveway with the tractor. As he was driving away I could see a rat trying to crawl out a small drain hole under the engine. It got out and was in the open. I yelled for the dogs and the race was on. Our young dog was running beside it but kept missing it. Then Lucy (older) got there just as it ran into the barn. It went behind a box so I moved the box and Lucy jumped over me and the box and got the rat. Lucy is an excellent mouser and rater. It was pretty exciting and I had proof that there really was something in the tractor.

Eric