I’ve been watching Mittens the cat (and her sidekick Houston) move into the outdoors. Houston is about a year old, and his sire is either a Maine Coon or a cougar of respectable size. He was an active kitten, and I’m pretty sure he earned his name by matching the phrase “Houston, we have a problem.” Huge, orange, and not particularly brave. Growing up is not easy for him.
Mittens is a year older – we got Houston because she was becoming a bit destructive. The theory is that a second cat would mellow the behavior. So this small tuxedo cat adopted the barely weaned kitten, and, while he is over twice her size, Mittens is Top Cat.
Houston goes outside and carefully stalks the hummingbird feeder. Since he is huge, orange and inept, the hummingbirds are in no danger. The robins might be in some danger – he has gotten brave enough to leave the porch, though he is more likely to watch from under the deck than the lawn. Mittens, on the other hand, has greater things in mind – she stalks the turkey hens and Canada Geese. As she gets closer to them, she continues to make the same discovery – these birds are big. The hunt breaks down with the little cat casually standing up, heading for the house, and going to the litter box. Appearances are important to cats.
It’s time for an addition. Yesterday evening Houston was out stalking a deer. Fortunately the deer left before he decided to pounce.
There has been an interesting ecology around our house. When we selected the site, we frequently saw weasels hunting along the pond and in the field – and the deer mice, voles and ground squirrels had low populations. An increase in Trego’s feral cat population took out the weasels and the rodent population increased. Now we have a small pack of coyotes that are proficient cat hunters coming through in the pre-dawn hours (trail cameras monitor things we would otherwise not notice). The major indicator is the squirrel population is increasing.
So I have two young cats, anxious to control the rodent population, that I let out only in the daylight hours. I think the rodent control was handled better when the weasels did the job.
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