Never have a camera when you need one

We have a cat. He is a hunter. Catches gophers and always seems to have a bird of some sort. He likes to hang around the chicken coops and keeps them very clear of vermin. Helps me do chicken chores everyday and seems to like to torment the grown chooks. Leaping out from behind bushes and long grass to make them scream and run. Then looks at me with a happy face. Good cat.

He is an inside cat as well. When I was moving the chicks from the bator to the brooder, who strolls in? You got it, hunter man. I had chicks all over the floor....well 10 of them anyways. I just said 'no' to him and he wandered over and had a look. They were cheeping and tootering around and being cute and he seemed very interested. I was just about to remove him when he started to lick them. He is a licker, drives me CRAZY!!! When he is happy he wants to lick me....arrgh! That is the only reason I know that he was not just tasting them.

So the hunter in the family has impressed me with his understanding that these are different from the birds outside because they are mine, or his as the case may be. I can not say how impressed I am with him. I always expect this type of thing from a dog, but not necessarily a cat. But I suppose this is the same cat that will sit on the high stool at the island in our kitchen, not to watch me with food or try to get any, but just to be with me.

Nothing like a good cat!

That sure would have been the million dollar shot! The rest of us would have assumed he was indeed tasting, or maybe testing for tenderness.

I am new to cats, Horsey Teen having dragged a sick and wild one home from the mill she works at. Cats are dumped there in vast numbers and quickly succumb to machinery. It is horrible.

So we have one cat here, Tally Cat. He sleeps a lot. Never seen anything like it. Mostly he is not wanting to be handled.

A while ago I hear yelling outside. Weird. Why is someone yelling? I pop head out the door and realize it is HUbby, who is replacing some part in one of Daughter's big, lifted trucks. He is laying on his back under the truck and my first thought is it has fallen off a jack and is crushing him or he has dropped a heavy part on himself.

I rush over, what, what, what is the problem?
THe cat! Get the cat!
Tally Cat has climbed onto Hubby's chest while Hubby's arms are up inside this truck, holding a piece that he can't just let go of, and Tally Cat is purring and making happy claws into Hubby's flesh! Hubby is yelling. I grab the cat, who grabs onto Hubby. More yelling. I let go of cat who resumes his happy, dagger like kneading on Hubby's chest and stomach. Finally I make a hissing noise which cat disliked and took off. Now Hubby checks to see if the cat is asleep or not before he begins any vehicle repair. He has learned that Tally Cat does NOT like to be hugged. So if cat comes purring over, Hubby just gives him a hug and hangs on until the cat squirms, then lets him go. THen the cat stays away, but does glare from a distance. A menace to all backyard mechanics.

Wonderful story!

What happened to all Tally Cat's miserable health conditions - did they go away?

Your cat sounds a lot like ours Coopslave. Hunter extrodinare, but also a big lovable goof. I'm curious, is your cat orange?

Awe, that was a cute story, and yours too Uno. Picture Hubby with deep claw pricks on his chest though. I think cats are smart and alot smarter than credit is given. Not being a catty type person,when I hear something that makes me go "awe", then that is just a nice feeling. Usually it is me seeing the cats here tormenting the mice and that makes me feel awful. If only they would just kill the suckers!! Have that great whatever, smiling that huge smile. CynthiaM.

Sounds better behaved than the one we used to have. Socks (a black cat with white feet) didn't look big but he was very heavy when you picked him up. He wouldn't bother the full grown chickens but I caught him chasing the feathered chicks when he thought we weren't around.

Pity about Socks. He was very friendly but had a rover's heart. Just had to go out exploring. He eventually didn't come home one day. I'm thinking he met up with a coyote or a bobcat.

DCChick wrote:Your cat sounds a lot like ours Coopslave. Hunter extrodinare, but also a big lovable goof. I'm curious, is your cat orange?

It is very interesting that you mention an orange tabby DC, because I was going to ask the same thing. !!
Ours sounds very much the same, a very lovable and dependable cat. He is a huge orange tabby that we got from the SPCA. He was picked by us because he was so happy to rub against our legs or be picked up, rather than look for an escape as soon as removed from the SPCA cage. We named him "D8", because he is big and orange of course! . Never scratched my kids, even though they have deserved it many times. Best cat we have ever had!

I am an absolute sucker for a big, ginger, tabby tom! That is what I was looking for when we (I ) decided to get a cat again. I haven't had one for over 10 years!

But this fellow is a black and white tuxedo. He actually chose me. There were 3 kittens and I was drawn to the grey tabby. It was a female and I really wanted a male, but I like the tabbies too. He was having none of it and kept pushing her away and drawing my attention to him, so home he came with me. He didn't take any time at all to clean the house out of mice and has kept it that way for 2 years now.

We ended up taking the tabby female for the ranch. She is an amazing hunter too. She is called 'mumma cat'. She is very cool, it amazing the range she has.

Hubby is so not a cat person, but he does like this cat. Calls him 'Bad Cat', but notices right away if the cat is not around. The cat's name is Dash, but hubby calls him Mowsy. They have cat luvin time in the evenings for a couple of minutes when hubby sits on the couch and the cat joins him for a few head bumps and licks (ewww) and chin rubs and then it is over. Very funny.

He also thinks Mumma Cat is pretty cool. She does such a good job down at the ranch. The barn doesn't smell like vermin any more. Yay! So much for not being a cat person, hey?

Nothin like a good cat. There are lots of cats I haven't liked very much but good ones are well worth having around.

I think he was tastinging for saltiness and found them too salty for his liking! Lol

Cute story

Tally Cat (because he used to linger near the tally shack at the mill, Daughter is the tally person) is an orange male. BUt he is very small and has not grown since we got him. Perhaps he suffered a food shortage in his youth that left him stunted. He eats like a horse and is still thin. I do not think he's hunted anything but the dog since he got here. As dumb dog lumbers by, Tally Cat hunkers down in the grass, flicks the tail and pounces. The dog is ALWAYS surprised!

Despite antibiotics, which makes me suspect virus or allergies, the cat is only now overcoming his snottiness. It was sort of gross trying to pet a cat who could fling green snot on you at any moment. Despite being snotty and congested, he seemed bright and cat like, aside from hours of sleeping, always game to attack the dog. We find it amusing when he claws the dog's face, his claws get caught in all that curly hair, then the dog trots off, cat dragging along like a little orange scarf. He drops off eventually.

Aww that is a nice story My girls were the most ferocious of huntresses when they were younger. Rarely a day where they didn't bring me a present. I watched Misty leap into the air taking down a bird in flight, when we lived by the hospital in Victoria they have a huge stray bunny problem but my girls helped keep the population down, Never ever had a mouse in the house and they'd even crunch up the dreaded spiders But they never tried catching any other creature I chose to keep as a pet. I've had cockatiels that would fly over and sit beside them occasionally picking their fur and although the cat would move on they never touched the birds. My sons lionhead bunny a couple of times snuck up on Misty and tried to mount her but although decidedly unhappy she just walked away and gave it a good hiss Our duckling brooder is on the floor right in front of Spookys bed and never showed any sign of interest other than occasional annoyance at the peeping. When the ducklings move into the big kiddie pool brooder they sit beside it and watch them run around like the ducklings are there purely for their lazy entertainment
Females are usually the better hunters and usually just take out their prey unless they figure you need to learn to hunt haha Females bring back live prey to teach their young to hunt so occasionally they'll decide you're not educated enough in catching your own food My cats although I've had them since 6wks old and they're now 15yrs they are not snugglers they're happy to sit beside us or on us if it looks welcoming but not real fond of big snuggles. Misty if we held out our hand about a foot off the ground she'd come running and rub her head up along our palm and purr. Everytime we'd open the bathroom door she'd be sitting there ready to greet us and have a little chat
Once you have a cat they're hard not to get attached. My little Misty was having kidney failure so my vet came out to the house yesterday and I held her as she went to sleep She had a good long life and I couldn't watch her getting weaker and uncomfortable My Spooky is a month older and shaped like a black football but still going strong. I took Spooky out to the barn with me this morning and when I went in to check on the meat chicks in the horse stall brooder she came in with me and came out with a mouse She's sticking pretty close today since her buddy (more like a sister really) is gone.