Time To Meet The Other Furbabies

Once upon a time we didn't have a ground squirrel problem but then the neighbor decided to use the pair of fox for target practice and pretty soon we were over-run with ground squirrels. The blasted evil beasts even came up on the deck and ate all my herbs down to the dirt! They went through the garden faster than locust. The only thing they didn't eat was the hot peppers! Tomatoes -- gone. Corn -- gone. Peas -- gone. Beans -- gone.

And, I'm here to tell you that poison doesn't work. They can eat it by the gallon and the bottomline is they multiple faster than the amount of poison one can afford to buy kills them off.

So, we had choices. Go broke buying poison. Give up on the garden, which was not an option. Or find another way to fight the squirrels.

Voila! Cats! Off we went to pick up a cat, Debbie, and her kitten from Freecycle. I mean, who in the world names a Siamese cat Debbie? Ah, no one! So, we acquired the newly named Kahlua. She is a torti-point and quite different looking. She's a major pain in the assets but she's a hunter supreme. Her kitten was a total flake and took up biting, so she went down the road.

Then September 12, 2007, hubby looked out the kitchen window and thought he saw some fox kits. Obviously, before he puts his contacts in There were four kittens that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to dump on our back deck. And I mean a lot of trouble. We are 2.5 miles off the highway and up a dirt road and the house sits 150' off the dirt road.

We kept the largest male kitten. His name is Smokey and doesn't look like he'd get out of his own way but Kahlua took him under her paw and taught him to hunt. He works diligently to keep both the ground squirrel and cottontail population under control. He's grown quite a bit since this picture and weighs in at over 25 pounds.

Well, before we could get Kahlua in to have her spayed, she presented us with a litter of kittens. Youngest wanted to keep the blue point long haired kitten but he turned out to be another nutcase, so he found a new home. I kept the tiny black-pointed tortoiseshell and named her Precious. She's a little goofy but not mean. Scared of the world, so she has become our house cat. Not a mouse to be seen. Works for me. She also thinks Cali is her own personal dog. If they are laying together in front of the woodstove, you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

Now, I thought I had it timed but Kahlua managed to sneak in another litter. We kept the three boys, Pickles (don't ask), Mr. Snuggles and Lil' Harry Houdini.

Pickles is a long-haired orange marmalade cat. He's not going to have the super long hair that Smokey has. He's a funny character. He's been neutered and had his rabies shots, so he's now out following mom around. We'll see if he becomes as good a hunter as mom and Smokey.

Mr. Snuggles is hard to get a good picture of. In real life, he doesn't look like a real cat. He looks like a stuffed animal. He's a seal-point Siamese. He's also a klutz! He tries to leap from counter to counter and belly-flops! He lays down on the sofa and rolls off the edge. We don't have much hope for him as a hunter! Well, he's a big horse of a cat, perhaps if he falls on his prey

And then we have Lil' Harry Houdini. He's a flame-point Siamese and about half the size of the other two. He thinks he's the great hunter. He was the runt and Kahlua would routinely dump him out of the box they were in. Usually straight on his head. He was the first one to walk. Well, more like a little mechanical toy trying to run. Funniest thing you ever saw. He and Precious are best buds. He'll probably stay in the house with Precious. The local hawks would probably mistake him for a bunny-sized meal. He's totally fearless and wouldn't run from the approaching hawk, so that would spell disaster.

Kahlua is now spayed. The boys are all neutered. Precious is spayed. The cat population will remain static. Hopefully no one else will decide we need a midnight visit with a basketload of kittens. The squirrel population is under control. My herbs are again growing in profusion on the deck. We had an excellent crop of peas, beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers, beets, strawberries, raspberries, marionberries, onions, lettuce, radishes, carrots and I don't remember what and all else this last year. Even with the extremely early frost that got my tomatoes. But that's a story for another day.