Cat stories

I am gearing up for my show next weekend so this week will all be dressage, dressage, dressage.  I am still on the fence about entering the App as well as the TWH, need to make up my mind fast though b/c I have to mail in my registration by Friday.

On another note my barn cats are always amusing.  They still keep me well supplied with dead mammals, ranging from 3-5 dead things a week.  Not too bad IMO, that is enough to not make me not feel bad about giving them a can of wet cat food at night.  I do, however, have 2 stories.  One gory, the other funny.  Skip two paragraphs if you would like to miss some death.

SO has a toolbox in the back workshop from his previous life as a mechanic.  In it he had a few granola bars and some rags in addition to all of his tools.  This past spring he noticed something had eaten on the granola bars and had tried to make nests around his toolbox.  We couldn't ever find anything alive and it wasn't a nuisance enough to set traps.  Yesterday SO was working back in the shop and found something had put a serious hurting on a shirt he had left out.  It was now full of holes and chew marks and when he picked it up he saw movement.  There was a mouse IN the shirt.  He tried shaking the shirt a few times but the mouse clung to the shirt, refusing to come out and run away.  As the mouse wouldn't run away, SO brought it up to the barn as a toy.

SO didn't even have to call the cat's names as he came around to the barn, they came to inspect whatever he was doing.  He told them he had a toy and when the mouse still wouldn't shake out of the shirt, he put the shirt on the ground.  The cats got the mouse out of the shirt but only half heartedly played with it, the mouse was pretty defensive and didn't just run away.  At one point it almost got away by trying to climb up the barn wall but was knocked down.  As it lay there Patches went in to play with it and had the audacity to bite her face.  Patches grumbled in protest and threw the mouse off.  Sylvester started playing with it again but then Patches walked up and, with no hesitation, went munch, munch, off with it's head.  Bye, bye mouse, I guess the lesson is do not bite a barn cat.  She didn't eat it either, just bit it's head off so I am guessing she took the attack personally?

This morning I turned all of the horses out for the day and was cleaning stalls. I kept hearing noise outside and then not only was the dog barking but then the donkey brayed.  Since this was extremely out of character, since she typically brays when she wants something and doesn't have it, I went out to inspect.  I heard chirping and it sounded like turkeys were fighting.  I saw some jumping around and some wing feathers through the trees, being excited to possibly see two male turkeys fighting I walked quickly over to the neighbors field.  What I saw, however, was not 2 turkeys fighting.  What I saw was an adult female turkey being stalked and attacked by Patches.  The turkey kept chirping and walking away and Patches was trying to pounce thus making the turkey jump in the air and squawk.  She has been stalking turkeys since spring and I am figuring it is only a matter of time before she gets one.  Wonder what the appropriate prize would be for a barn cat if she drug home a wild turkey?