cats – Page 2 – New England's Narrow Road

One Beautiful Day

This past week has been very rainy. With the remnants of tropical storm Nicole dumping over 5 inches of rain here yesterday and a few inches the day before, the gorgeous day we had Wednesday was just a good memory.

It was so beautiful that I took the cats for a walk. My landlady recently had someone come out and cut some trees for her to use as firewood so they made a path through the back of the yard in the woods. It’s a nice place to go for a quick walk and my two cats love to follow along.

They run and climb the trees chasing each other and then just flop down on the rocks watching me. I am not as graceful and they probably wonder why I am so slow, but I stopped to get some photos of some mushrooms I found. I had wanted some foliage photos, but it’s just not a great year for that. Or maybe it’s too early, but I don’t think so.

When we get to the end of the man-made trail, I cut into the trees where it’s easier to walk, except for all the branches that have fallen, and that’s where Fontana decided to rest on a mossy rock.

black cat on green moss — Beautiful Fontana

She looked so regal with her long dark fur on the bright green moss. I am a terrible animal photographer and I thought for sure she’d hop down before I got a decent shot of her, but I am very happy with this one. I even caught Richie in the background resting on his own rock.
It’s hard to believe that we adopted them 9 months ago. Instead of spending their days in little cages, they now have the whole big woods to roam. I think they are happy. And it was a beautiful day.

The Chipmunk Fake Out

Some place right in front of the cats in the picture to the right, is a hole in the ground where a chipmunk lives. My cats enjoy sitting close by waiting for it to appear.

Occasionally, Richie – crazy little kitty that he is – will stick both paws down into the hole and try to pry the little critter out. Richie is a male and is quite the hunter. He leaves dead things outside my back porch each morning.

He does catch many chipmunks and I’ve noticed that the chipmunks are really pretty clever. If you have outdoor cats that hunt link mine, you might already know about this, but I was so surprised when I first saw it.

All of a sudden the “injured” rodent bee-lined it for the woods.
He wasn’t hurt at all …just pretending until he could make his getaway. And he did get away. We were all fooled, including Richie!

The cat will play with it’s prey. It’s very cruel, but they love the chase so don’t want to give it up right away.
We watched one day as Richie was playing with a chipmunk. As it (the chipmunk) hopped around with it’s back all hunched up, and Richie batted it around, we noticed that the chipmunk was moving towards the woods as he hopped in circles. Suddenly the chipmunk came to life and bolted for the woods. He was lost in the leaves and rocks and had made his escape successfully. Richie was the loser.

I’ve seen this happen over and over since that day. Some of them don’t get away because Richie is an amazing hunter.

Where The Cats Are

Well, if you have cats, you already know how weird they can be.

Richie likes to be in the middle of everything. I was trying to bake something a while back – can’t remember what – and he thought the cookbook would be the best place to sleep.

The weather must have been lousy, or he would have been outdoors. He just sat there watching me with his crazy look.

Richie and cookbook — Recipes Are For Sleeping On

Fontana, on the other hand, likes the soft, fluffy rug in my daughter’s room. She is a bit of a chubby puffball herself!

The Downside of Having Cats

There have been no cats in my life for so long that I had forgotten the one thing about them that is uncontrollable if they roam the outdoors.

They will catch anything smaller than them that moves.

Richie, in the picture, showed his hunting skills just after he was adopted by us by catching a mouse in my kitchen in the early morning hours. And even though he and Fontana came to live with us in the middle of winter, Richie sat at the slider each morning begging to be let free.

Once we felt that he had become accustomed to this area, we started letting him out and he immediately began catching mice and voles. We’d always know when he had something because he would bring it up to the door and meow (with the creature dangling in his jaws) and beg to come in.

Everyone who has outdoor cats know that they do this. They love to show off their prize.

We have numerous large gray squirrels and also many smaller red squirrels in my area and Richie would crouch on the porch watching them steal the birdseed. Occasionally he would make a try for one, but the snow was too deep for him to get close.

The red squirrels are quick and I told my son that he (the cat) would never be able to catch one of those.

This picture proves me wrong and I don’t know how he did it, but he had to show me.

The chipmonks are coming out of hibernation now and he has also caught a few of those. I always feel badly when he kills something, but it’s his instinct and I won’t keep him indoors because he loves being outside.