Kitty Cat WalkAbout

[MadMadHoosier]

I've been watching one primary cat, and a couple others visit our farm for almost a year. Initially I thought it permanently moved into our barn, and was very happy it could help reduce mice. I even bought an automatic cat feeder to give it a daily supplement of cat food, so it might hang around. But it has shown to come and go on no particular schedule.

What is amazing to me is the distance it is traveling to get to and from our old barn. The next closest resident is about .6 miles from our cabin, and our woods are full of coyote, bobcat, and the occasional fox. Just cannot believe it (they) survive the somewhat regular trip through the woods! About the time I think something got it, because I've not seen it in a while, it shows up again. Interesting and fun to watch.

 

[Bill]

Someone drops one off at my farm every fall. I've yet to see one make it to spring. But maybe they leave like yours.

 

[SwampCat]

I have a big old cat showed up at the house 15 years ago. Opened the back door and it walked right in. Still around. Laziest cat I ever saw. Never seen it with any kind of mouse or other kill. Been gone up to six months at a time. Caught it in a live trap over at deer camp a mile away once - but only once. No telling how old he is. Was an adult cat 15 years ago

 

[Thomasc19]

Nice ditch cougars! I always have a couple different cats show up every year - I found two kittens that were in bad shape in my barn and brought them in. I still have one of the two, and they're better than any other cat my family has had

 

[b116757]

I will occasionally catch neighbors dogs on camera. Several years ago I had a dog that must of been starving come eat my deer corn everyday that’s one hungry dog that stands and eats deer corn. Looked like death warmed up on camera skin and bones.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I don’t let them hang around. They are hell on ground nesting birds, particularly quail. Doesn’t mesh with my management goals

 

[Tree Spud]

We have one. Since he has been around, the chipmunk population has gone down, which he would attack voles. As they do go after song and nesting birds, tried to trap him with a Havahart trap with cat food. All I caught was 3 possums.

 

[Turkey Creek]

It is crazy how some feral/barn cats have the overwhelming ability to survive (yes not good for the bird populations). My mom has a barn cat that has probably lived for at least 10 years now. Regularly travels .5 mile between my brother's house and hers. Throws a litter of kittens continuously, who luckily mostly die off. That cat lives in fairly hostile territory now that I am not there to thin the coyote/ bobcat population.

 

[Westwind]

I’m not usually a cat fan. We had one my daughters adopted years ago. She was pretty funny, I liked her because she was a total b!tch most of the time and scared the hell out of my male lab and Belgian malinois. Awesome mouser.

She was a small cat but she thought she was 100 pounds. She survived two owl attacks. Both times had cuts down her back and I don’t know how she got loose. She pretty much moved quickly from cover to cover after that.

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

I too go back and forth on the cat thing. When we moved to the farm last fall there was one living in the barn. My wife fed it but once my dog tussled it a few times, I never saw it again. We then proceeded to have a bunch of mice in the house. I grew up pheasant hunting an old timers farm and he always told me that we were welcome to hunt anytime we wanted but if we ever saw a cat and didn't kill it, we weren't welcome back. His farm was one of the last places I ever hunted with a healthy population of pheasants and quail...

 

[SwampCat]

We have to keep a cat or two. We live in the middle of nowhere and our house must look to mice like Las Vegas in the desert looks to people. Female cats, when spayed, dont seem to roam too bad. A tomcat with nuts will be gone more than he is home. If neutered, they dont roam too bad. I consider female cats better mousers.

 

[Feelslikefar.]

There was an article in Field and Stream (IIRC) years ago about feral house cats. They did a study of rabbit burrows in dormant farm fields, CRP type land somewhere in upstate NY. And it was some crazy high number like 80-90% of the holes they looked in had feral cats living in them. Then listed the astronomical number of song birds they kill on average each year. They can't be helping the game bird poult population either.
I've been tempted to drop the hammer on one a time or two in the woods, but didn't want to chance killing someone's pet.

I also watched one stalking a big buck in a corn field once. No idea what he thought he was going to do if he got close enough.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I’m killing every one of them. Invasive species

 

[SwampCat]

I run a ton of cameras. Our cats are always spayed or neutered and I never get a pic of one even a 1/4 mile away. I trap quite a bit - and even trap for cats if I get a pic of one. Last one I caught, something had eaten it when I checked the trap next morn.

 

[Catscratch]

I’m killing every one of them. Invasive species

Same, I just wasn't sure I wanted say it. They "undo" a LOT of what we work to do.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Same, I just wasn't sure I wanted say it. They "undo" a LOT of what we work to do.

Exactly. Look at parts of Australia. Even those limp wrists hunt them cause they are so destructive.

 

[Barndog56]

There were a couple living on our place when we bought it 11 years ago. My wife put out food for them in the barn so they would stay around for rodent control. She's deathly afraid of snakes, which they do kill. The next spring a pregnant female suddenly appeared and it's been cat central in the barn ever since. A couple new ones randomly show up every year.

I think there's been as many as about 40 at the highest, but usually about 20. When there's more than that all the kittens get sick and die off. There's about 5 that we can actually pet. I would much prefer to thin the herd way down, but I'm not allowed. A couple of females tragically disappear every once in awhile when my wife is gone for the day.

They get a couple of our barn swallows each year, and a random other bird here and there. But on the good side they go to town on voles and moles both. And we don't have a single rabbit or squirrel on the property messing with my fruit trees.

Several of them go pretty far on their hunting trips, crossing the rode into the corn field, or following deer trails out the back of our property.

 

[356]

We enjoy having them around our place. There are usually two or three barn cats around. This is one of the newest.