Good help ... (WARNING: More cat pics!)

[Dan]

... is hard to find these days.

Case in point, we took in a waif of a stray cat last year, and the deal was, in return for performing certain duties, such as no kittens ... ever, lap-warming duty in the cold months, and guarding the place from unwanted intruders, we would both feed and shelter said (old) cat. Seemed like a workable deal to us, and she obviously agreed at the time.

But a few days ago, I came into the living room just in time to see this absolute dereliction of duty on display at the open front door.

Guard Cat -- FAIL!


I know it's a firing offense ... but ...

...


...


...







Sheesh! <....>

[Iron_Mike]

It's hard to to find good help these days with the minimum wage law in effect.....

[coffee412]

I inherited a cat from my mother-in-law. I had to totally retrain her. It was terrible. But things worked out in the end and now she has guard duty for mice, chipmunks, moles and others.

We also share couch duty on day offs.

[John the train]

How does Mister feel about such flagrant dereliction of duty?

[Dan]

Originally Posted by John the train

How does Mister feel about such flagrant dereliction of duty?

I decided to go find him and ask him about that ...

... but he didn't seem any too interested in discussing the matter.




<....>

[Dan]

Originally Posted by coffee412

... We also share couch duty on day offs.

Think ya got enough remote controls there? No wonder you got tired. All that thinking and everything ...


<....>

[John the train]

Would I be right in assuming you're having a warm spell in Texas, Dan?

[Dan]

Ayup. You would be safe in that assumption.

[John the train]

Weather here is back to typical summer ( 80 degrees F,relative humidity a comfortable 60% - just how I like it ) but you may have seen reports of some wild weather hitting parts of the UK recently.

[bob]

At least you can speculate that MAYBE that cat will perform under pressure. Mine has confirmed her absolute worthlessness once again.

Two weeks ago my wife alerted me to some animal scratching in the pantry. Oh well, set another mousetrap, right? NOPE! I opened the pantry door and was face to face with a red squirrel at nose height. Apparently, my face was the scarier since he jumped over my head and ran under a table until we opened the front door and he made a speedy exit. And our cat?....sleeping.

But that's not the end of it! I put rat traps in the pantry and the squirrel appeared two days later, setting off the traps without so much as a scratch. So, warning my wife that this was going to be ugly, I grabbed my pellet pistol ($19.95 at the travelling tool auction) and took careful aim, putting a pellet right between his eyes....

I could tell it was right between his eyes because that's where it was stuck to his forehead as he continued to look at me. Hmmm...skull's too tough, huh? Okay, side shot.... Well, 4 pellets later, the squirrel began to become annoyed with the skin irritation and hopped down from the pantry, right in front of the CAT!

Yes, our cat chased the squirrel around the house...all around the house...pausing when she'd catch him and then watching him run away time after time. Me? I'm chasing cat chasing squirrel. And wife? Laughing her butt off!

Well, long story finally comes to an end when I corner the squirrel in our half-bath (5'x8') and I had the advantage, gloves and an eventual end to the critter. Meanwhile, our cat had lost interest and returned to napping.

PS: 4 squirrels later, I discovered the 3lb. can of salted peanuts in the pantry that they'd chewed into, that rat traps, properly set, do work and that I can spend 3 days sealing up every possible crack and point of entry around the house. All's quiet for now.

[Dan]

You know, Bob ... if the local critters up there ever decide to get organized ... you're pretty much screwed in serious trouble. <....>

Today, down here, it was They Grow 'em Big in Texas, Day.

This one was first up this morning. Spotted it whilst out looking to see what kind of trouble Splotch was getting into. The leaf this guy is on is every bit as big as the palm of my hand.

That's Mister Giant Swallowtail Butterfly to you!



Then, once safely back in the house, I hear a medium sized fighter aircraft zipping around the living room. I headed into the room with a fly swatter, but what I saw in the windowsill brought me up short ... and I turned around and headed for the gun cabinet instead! <....>

I finally captured it ... but I was well prepared to to go all Clint Eastwood on it if I had to.

Yeah ... That is a .45ACP 210gr Hardball.


A better perspective ... safely from behind a tough plastic nut container.


He didn't seem particularly pleased with this turn of events, either.


After I took some photos, I took the container out in the yard, and whilst hiding behind the truck, flipped the lid off with a long stick.


I noticed that throughout this whole series of events, every cat on the place watched from a safe distance, and from behind cover. <....>

[bob]

Oh yeah, a cicada killer! Monsters that fortunately don't come this far north, along with poisonous snakes and crocs. We just get black bears, moose and coyotes, minor stuff.

[smr54]

Well, to get all technical....

Cats supposedly have to learn the prey killing neck bite at an early age, or they may, or may not learn.
That is, if they didn't learn as a kitten, they may never get that killing bite down successfully.

I had two cats, both now sadly, deceased. I got them together, when they were about 4 months old, from a cat rescue place. However, though they'd been raised together from about 3 months, (along with many others), they'd come from two different backgrounds--one had been bottle fed from birth. The other had been feral cat till he was 5 weeks old.

When they became adults, the one who had been raised feral was quite a mouser. There'd be a flash of movement and he'd be walking around with a dead mouse in his jaws. He even caught a bird on the terrace once, though when he put it down, it flew away.

The other cat, though good at catching mice, never quite figured out the killing part. He'd pick it up, he'd play with it, run away with it, but unless he (apparently) battered it to death, when he put it down and turned away, it would disappear. Even when he seemed to be grabbing it in the right place, it wouldn't kill it.

Interestingly enough, to further digress, apparently young lions start with the nape of the neck bite as well, but only learn as they get older that with the large size prey, they have to work around to the front of the next for it to do any good.

[bob]

Gotta demonstrate the killing neck bite? Well, our cat's about 15 years old, but perhaps it's not too late. "Melicks, pay attention now.... Oh honey, come in here a minute...."

[coffee412]

Originally Posted by Dan

Think ya got enough remote controls there? No wonder you got tired. All that thinking and everything ...


<....>

Sundays are a day off for us. Otherwise we work 6 days a week. Remotes? Yep. Got the TV remote, Mythtv remote and the Home theater remote.