Quern and Max have settled in at EEC Forest Stewardship. Last week, Quern and Marrow were working on mouse hunting and had a live lesson on the porch. If the cats catch anything else except mice and rats, I will take it away, but a mouse is exactly what I want them to hunt, and I was thrilled they had one to learn from. I was unable to stay and learn with my cats on this day, but I did get a quick video to share. It looks like Marrow is offering advice while Quern works, but I think Quern is already excelling on his own, and perhaps, Marrow is the one learning. Both young cats are well settled here on the farm, and thankfully, aware that the house is a safe place, and that predators abound. Now in their 8th month of habitation here, I’m grateful to know they have learned to avoid owls, bobcats, cougars, coyotes, raccoons, neighbor dogs, my LGDs, and the elements.
It can be very challenging to keep cats in this ecosystem. The best success comes in giving the cats plenty of safe places to hide, good nutrition, and slow introduction when they are young, or are already adapted to outside in this ecosystem before making the introduction to a new place. With the first cats I brought to the farm after a few years of trying to control rodents with traps and bait, I picked kittens to introduce. Both had been living with a great outdoor mom, who had already begun teaching them about the great outdoors. These foundational exposures at a young age build strong survival instinct. We humans could take a page from this, early education outside makes smart kids that have good self-preservation skills. Exposure to the natural world helps us all find our place within it. For these young cats, the farm is a fun place with lots of adventure, as well as early morning meals, good pets and cuddles from people, and a couple of older cats to learn with.
Max has been enjoying his own antics, exploring under the house, in the tight spaces behind boards in the garage, or under the storage shelving in the pole barn, he is often hanging out covered in cobwebs from his spelunking adventures. It’s taken quite a while to accustom the new cats with the established ones, they don’t have to be best friends, but they do need to function around one another and not fight. Watching Quern with Marrow was so warming, because I know Marrow’s been looking for a friend since Muir died, and I think he’s found a tabby friend at last. Lucia, Muir’s sister, and the queen mamma cat of the property, has not taken to the young cats, or any other cats, since her brother died. I think she will remain a solo meow, content to be the head cat at the barn, and my snuggle buddy on cold wet nights, resting peacefully at the foot of the bed. Now, in the warm summer months, she sleeps anywhere that’s cool and quiet- like the corner of the sheep’s barn on a scorching August afternoon.
Four cats is more than enough for this landscape, and there are several others in the neighborhood. Out wild birds learn fast to keep up in the trees and alert on the ground around here. Feeding the cats in the morning helps too, as they are full and ready to take a nap when the birds wake up first thing. Occasionally I do find feathers on the ground, plucked by a feline, but all my cats are raised without any feather play, so birds are not in the enrichment program of these cats when they are kittens. If there’s one thing I’ll compel with outdoor cats- don’t ever play with them with feathers. I use socks stuffed with wool and catnip, fake fur strips, and toy mice to initiate rodent and ground hunting. This is the key behavioral tool to help prevent your cats hunting birds.
Lots of social hangout time still happens in the house. The young cats need continued interaction with people to remain easy to handle. Between the two, Max is a cuddle buddy, but Quern will settle in, if you leave him to choose when and how. With the hot weather settled in, all the cats are preferring to be outside in a shade spot- we don’t have central air-conditioning, and it can be a little stuffy for the cats and people inside. With letting your cats spend most of there time outside, you are taking a great risk. Every morning, when I call the young cats to the house for breakfast, I worry that someone might not come home. It can be a heart break when this happens, but so far, we’ve only lost one cat here from predation, and she had movement issues. I’d also not planned on having her as a full time outdoor cat, but she snuck out one morning and I was not home till after dark. It was the only time one of the farm cats didn’t come home, but it was hard. I had not had this cat since it was very young, it had not had a chance to slowly learn its surroundings and the dangers that lay just beyond the house.
Lucia has lived on the farm for 11 years now, and remains healthy and happy. She is gentle with young people and affectionate with older adults. Her brother Muir, had a congenital defect, and had been healthy and happy until his heart suddenly failed. He was under the chair on the front porch, curled up peacefully in a safe place he knew well. It was comforting to know he died in his home without fear. I would like all of us to have this end when it comes. The cats get their best life, just like the other animals here, from sheep and chickens, to geese, even the meal worms live quiet, well fed lives doing what they naturally do to sustain themselves, and then us. No, the cat’s don’t get eaten- but they do keep the feed for the other animals safe. They also keep vermin from getting into our living spaces, chewing through expensive wiring, or sickening us with diseases they carry. There is a long history of cats living with people, playing an important roll in protecting us by keeping rat and mouse populations down. It’s great to work in this legacy of human animal cooperation, and the cats are teaching me all the time, along with the rest of the animals I have the pleasure and privilege of working with.
EEC Forest Stewardship 