Oh, you might be wondering what is happening with the two kittens. Well, first of all, honeymoon is over! All they want to do is eat and sleep! I know that they are too young to be fully fledged rat catchers but it would be nice to see some other activity besides ‘hunting’ the Munchkin and begging for food all the time. They get raw meat in the morning and the evening…this is to get them used to eating (and catching) rats and other prey. I learned to feed farm cats this way from an old Belizean lady (who loved cats and owned a female cat that was perpetually pregnant or suckling). This old lady had probably raised more than 100 kittens so I took her word for it. Besides, with our first farm cat, I fed him cooked food (I was afraid of parasites and worm infestations) and as a result of this upbringing he was always digging in the trash looking for scraps of cooked food. We called him ‘Garbage Cat.’ Now it is raw meat and regular worming tablets…yes, look at my ‘active’ farm cats…

Lately, I have been getting annoyed with them (Lazy good for nothing blah blah blah!).

The two kittens are left under the house and night and in the morning, they are allowed into the house. They are fed very well before they enter the house but as soon as they come in, they start sniffing around for food and bits of crumbs everywhere. Whenever, we are eating, they whine and try to scrabble on our laps. What terrible behaviour!! Okay, so Gnome had to intervene since I was getting quite upset about it all.

Gnome: ‘Munchkin, may I make a suggestion? Don’t have the cats around when you are preparing food, eating food or processing food…they always go crazy when this is happening.’

Okay, so I followed his suggestion. The thing is…I am always ‘sorting out food’…I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday!! Not to mention the cups of tea in between. That day, I was also canning meat and broth. Oh, I forgot to mention that when Gnome makes pasta…they go crazy running about for bits of dough flying about! Gnome’s suggestion works but because of the nature of my (our) daily activities, I can only allow the cats in for about one hour a day!

Anyway, hopefully they will learn manners as they get older! The Crazy Cat (the feral cat) has actually become very friendly and personable. When he isn’t hungry (which is most of the time) he will climb onto our laps and sit! Yes, he is sitting…I suppose that is a break-through…

Have we tamed Crazy Cat??!!

We had a silly conversation last night that made me laugh out loud! We were talking about our ol’ farm cat that I have turned into quite a gourmand; his favourite foods are venison, smoked duck, beef jerky and vanilla ice-cream. It has got to the point that he won’t eat ‘cat food’ and God Forbid! we give him cat biscuits! He usually eats a mini size version of what we have for dinner.

He doesn’t touch any shop bought chicken or chicken gizzards/feet or any of those cheap cuts that people feed their pets…he will just lounge on the ground and have a staring competition with me. Guess who usually wins? Anyway, we were eating curry for dinner yesterday and when we were done (he has been trained to eat his meals after we have finished) he stood on his hind legs and pawed at Gnome’s empty bowl and attempted a sideways lick. He definitely knows that is not allowed to do that so we knew he was trying to communicate.

Gnome: ‘Oh yes, the cat loves curry and we haven’t had it for a long time.’

Munchkin: ‘Oh yeah he is trying to tell us that he likes curry.’

I went off to feed the cat in his normal feeding place.

Sure enough, the cat ate the curry delicately and slowly like it was a fine epicurean delight…he savoured each morsel slowly with calculated slowness. When he went back to Gnome to sit on his lap and lick his paws, I gave him some seconds as a surprise treat.

While the cat was on Gnome’s lap, the two new kittens came up scavenging and the first place they looked was the cat’s feeding bowl. To my surprise, they both didn’t touch the food at all…they just took a whiff and walked away.

This is the funny part, so please have a drum roll so that you can all laugh appropriately!

Munchkin: ‘Gnome, the little kittens didn’t eat the curry! I have to get them used to eating curry before they get too old…’

Gnome: ‘Hmmm, Munchkin…maybe you should teach the kittens to catch mice before you teach them to eat curry…’

Ha-Ha!!! That really made me Guffaw!! and laugh at our silly conversation!

Okay, I am ready to talk about the Crazy Cat on the farm. He has been a menace and a nuisance from day 1…oh, but cuteness goes a long way…so, I kinda still like him…how frustrating!! This is the story: Crazy Cat was given to us when he was 4 weeks old and now we have had him for 2 months. His Mother is a feral cat that lived in the woods and adopted a family (our friends who gave us the cat) when she was having her kittens. The family put her in a container to have her kittens (she had all four of them) and left food and water in the container for all of them. The mama and the kittens seemed to have minimal human contact during the time that she was nursing.

Okay, so I did not know that kittens from feral parentage are very, very hard to train…in fact, you could say that they can’t be trained. This little one bounces about all over the place. We left him under the house with our other new farm cat. It is so interesting to see the differences between them…the other one is so tame and polite.

This one is younger (now 3 months) and the other cat is 6 months old. Crazy Cat actually figured out how to get into the house before the older one…he scales walls, he climbs trees, and flies like a bat, in the air and lands solidly on his feet in our house. He is an amazing, flying acrobatic crazy cat that can swing from ladder rungs and fly through our window like a bat out of hell! We have our very own circus cat right on the farm! You honestly have to see it to believe it…I get amused and angry at the same time:

Oh, and I haven’t finished my tirade. This cat can’t sit on your lap for one second before he tries to jump up onto your shoulders or head. And what’s more…there are scratch marks all over my legs…whenever I am in the kitchen preparing food, he uses my leg as a staircase to get to the kitchen table to steal scraps. I am using a water spray to reprimand him but he has a memory of a gnat…he forgets everyday and crawls up my leg to the kitchen counter top.

Anyway, I feel better now for letting off a bit of steam. Crazy Cat has some redeeming qualities! Trying to be positive now!! Whenever I am out on the farm, he follows me about like a faithful puppy and keeps me company under the shade of a tree or a plant. Sometimes, he still get a bit wily and the other day, he tried to climb up and down a whole bunch of corn stalks ruining all the plants as he scrambled up and down in his usual hectic, crazy way. Oh well, he is keeping us on our toes. Gnome thinks he is cute and has managed to get him sitting on his lap for a record 5 seconds. Big Ol’ farm cat doesn’t like him and will try to guard the entrances to the house religiously to stop him from getting in…he just doesn’t realize that this elusive little cat has no need for doors!!

We had said for a long time that one was enough and we would have no more. Well, every-one it is another boy…a boy cat…I mean! This year, our farm cat turned ten and I think he has retired unofficially…I say that it is not official because never had a meeting with us about it! This is what he does 23 hours a day:

And more sleeping:

For one hour of the day from 5pm to 6pm he suddenly becomes very active and animated; he paws at his bowl or nudges it with his head. There is no catching of mice or other vermin during any of his 24 hour day. Anyway, I wanted to get to the story of the new boy: several months ago, Gnome told me that he kept on seeing flashes of something with orange fur jumping about under the house…at first, I thought he might be hallucinating because when he mentioned it, our orange cat was quite happily sleeping upstairs like this:

After the first sighting, Gnome kept on getting glimpses of orange fur under the house. I was getting concerned about Gnome because I thought he wasn’t getting enough sleep or something…is your mental health okay, Gnome…is the isolation of living in the middle of nowhere getting to you??

After a few days, Gnome was convinced that there was something orange downstairs so he went scouting. After a while, he came back with this cute little kitten. We don’t have an early pictures but it was very skinny orangey-white kitten. These later pictures show that he is actually a bit of a chunk…well partly because Munchkin likes to feed him. Meet our new farm cat:

He has a very gentle personality and likes to sit on our laps. This one has a very noisy purr and trills (like a tribble, if you know what I mean!). He is probably about 6 months now and we are enjoying his company since he isn’t sleeping all the time!!