Me vs. My Cat -- pt. Two

[Moke]

I've been getting the distinct feeling that I wringing this out now,.... down to the last Rat. I'm seeing lots of Mice down on the floor. But I'm only seeing the one Rat now.
And with me teaching it new tricks,.... +,.... pop goes the Crosman.

We had Lima beans with dinner tonight - yuch! So, I'm adding some Lima beans to the nightly Rats feast.

 

[Ranchibi]

I've been getting the distinct feeling that I wringing this out now,.... down to the last Rat. I'm seeing lots of Mice down on the floor. But I'm only seeing the one Rat now.
And with me teaching it new tricks,.... +,.... pop goes the Crosman.

We had Lima beans with dinner tonight - yuch! So, I'm adding some Lima beans to the nightly Rats feast.

I too think I got the last rat but they keep coming! I have fruit rats, rattus rattus and they are territorial living in a small group of one male and usually one female. Once I take both out it takes about a week before new ones move in, takes awhile before their scent markings for territory subsides. Your leftover lima beans will be like filet mignon to them....

 

[Bandito]

I hope all is well in Moke territory. Haven't got the rabbit that is haunting my garden. And if I don't soon there will be a dozen more! Be Well Brothers, dito.

 

[Moke]

Rats have been scarce, though I saw a huge one in the videos a couple of night ago. It was mostly too far to the side to see it well; and the battery was dying, and the camera went back to standard color mode to conserve energy, and quite grainy.

And, this from last nights video,.... Me vs. The Other Cat
I was reviewing the tapes this morning and found this interesting little bit:

In the video, you can see a mouse running around the Gallery floor eating seed from the very beginning of the video @ 0min:00sec At first it appears to be mostly a dark round ball looking thing.
At 1min. 04 sec., from the right, you can see a pair of eyes emerging - The Other Cat
From 1m:04sec, and until 4m:35sec, the Cat slowly stalks towards the left.
At around 4m: 30sec, a Mouse begins to approach. You can see eye shine to the lower left.
At 4min:36sec the Cat pounces, and, successfully catches a Mouse.

The rest of the video is pretty much nothing, as everyone was in hiding.
Where did this Cat come from?
My neighbor tried raising a couple of Barn Cats from kittens, and they both disappeared. Possibly his? I'm sending him the video link.

This same Cat showed up just outside of my Music Room (a converted garage), and sat just outside of the rear door. It freaked my cat, Kitty, right out, and she ran around in a panic at 3am. This is the second time that I've seen it now.

 

[Bandito]

Maybe it is just the competition your cat is upset about. Be Well Brother, dito.

 

[Bandito]

Are you OK Moke? Just wondering. Be Well, Brother, dito.

 

[Ranchibi]

Rats have been scarce, though I saw a huge one in the videos a couple of night ago. It was mostly too far to the side to see it well; and the battery was dying, and the camera went back to standard color mode to conserve energy, and quite grainy.

And, this from last nights video,.... Me vs. The Other Cat
I was reviewing the tapes this morning and found this interesting little bit:

In the video, you can see a mouse running around the Gallery floor eating seed from the very beginning of the video @ 0min:00sec At first it appears to be mostly a dark round ball looking thing.
At 1min. 04 sec., from the right, you can see a pair of eyes emerging - The Other Cat
From 1m:04sec, and until 4m:35sec, the Cat slowly stalks towards the left.
At around 4m: 30sec, a Mouse begins to approach. You can see eye shine to the lower left.
At 4min:36sec the Cat pounces, and, successfully catches a Mouse.

The rest of the video is pretty much nothing, as everyone was in hiding.
Where did this Cat come from?
My neighbor tried raising a couple of Barn Cats from kittens, and they both disappeared. Possibly his? I'm sending him the video link.

This same Cat showed up just outside of my Music Room (a converted garage), and sat just outside of the rear door. It freaked my cat, Kitty, right out, and she ran around in a panic at 3am. This is the second time that I've seen it now.

That's one stealthy kitty nabbing that mouse! How cool was that!?

 

[Moke]

Gents, many thanks.

I'm fine,... I'm just on very low rodent rations lately. In fact, the blind is stowed, the lighting removed, and, the night vision binoculars were returned to my neighbor.
Then,.... my neighbor came over and assigned them back to me on longer term loan, calling me the permanent keeper of the night vision; and if he needs them, he knows where to find them.

This is from a Rat video, and I did an annotation on it, a line, to support my point about the reflector dots.
The first image and second image are the same image, other than the white line added.
The white line, represents the horizontal scope reticle, and how I've used them to highlight various shots in the dark.

The reflector dots and horizontal reticle is set up for a proper head shot, and quick/immediate recognition of location in the dark....

Now, back to the good life,....

gracias amigos.

 

[Moke]

Kitty,.... this week:
Mouse
Gopher
Shrew

The weather has cooled, and she has returned to form.
This is her Shrew.:

The other rodents:
The mouse was eaten before camera was ready.
The gopher was just an identifiable pile of guts.

Shrews must not taste very good, as she presented it to us, and then left it behind.

 

[Bandito]

That gave me a chuckle. Thanks Moke. Be Well, Bandito.

 

[Bandito]

I have some mystery rats in my garden. They are eating my last watermelons. Can I borrow your cat Moke? Be Well Brother, dito.

 

[Bandito]

Still have NO visual on the rats in my garden or a chance at bunnicula either. Just biding my time. May opt for a dirty solution. ..... Sticky traps! Where is that cat Moke? Be Well , dito.

 

[Moke]

@Bandito

My apologies. I did not realize that you had posted.

I've not shot at any rodents in the last couple of weeks.
What have I been doing?
Lots of brush clearing, readying for winds and fires. We had one quite near us (-3miles), and that prompted lots of brush clearing.
I've also been splitting and stacking our firewood for the winter. Our power provider provides the highest rates in the nation, and we are an all electric build from the 70's when electricity was declared cheap and readily available.

The extent of my plinking lately,... another attic cleaning ad that we get as a monthly spamming send; from yesterday:

And the balance of the weeks labor:

I found rats nests in the wood left from last year.

 

[Bandito]

Sounds like you are a busy boy. I do like your choice of paper targets. Is the cat on strike or on overtime. Rats tend to expose themselves when you break up the woodpile. Be Well Brother, Bandito.

 

[Fastfred]

You should write a book, very well done and interesting.

 

[Moke]

Sounds like you are a busy boy. I do like your choice of paper targets. Is the cat on strike or on overtime. Rats tend to expose themselves when you break up the woodpile. Be Well Brother, Bandito.

On the Cat front,....
Kitty wrangled a Mouse yesterday. She brought it to the patio, and, promptly ate it. I only realized that she had caught/eaten one by the really creepy appearance of a long skinny tongue sticking out of Kittys mouth; it was the long end of the mouses tail sticking out of her mouth, at the last moment, before she swallows it, whole. But it does make it look like a long tapered tongue.
ewww!
and I let her sleep on the bed with me.

And, she makes me sleep with the window cracked open, for her sake. If not, she howls and whines until I do, and no one sleeps. This arrangement is fine in the summer. But its been too cold lately,... waaa-meow waaa-meow ( <- open the damn window, in cat translation).

 

[Bandito]

I have one of those bed warmers too. She doesn't make a lot of noise but doesn't like to be steamrolled by a fat old man. Testy she gets! Be Well Brother, dito.

 

[Ranchibi]

@Bandito

My apologies. I did not realize that you had posted.

I've not shot at any rodents in the last couple of weeks.
What have I been doing?
Lots of brush clearing, readying for winds and fires. We had one quite near us (-3miles), and that prompted lots of brush clearing.
I've also been splitting and stacking our firewood for the winter. Our power provider provides the highest rates in the nation, and we are an all electric build from the 70's when electricity was declared cheap and readily available.

The extent of my plinking lately,... another attic cleaning ad that we get as a monthly spamming send; from yesterday:
View attachment 513364
View attachment 513311View attachment 513314View attachment 513312

And the balance of the weeks labor:
View attachment 513315View attachment 513316View attachment 513317

I found rats nests in the wood left from last year.

Those 2D rats had no chance! That's A LOT of hard work there! You will be warm this winter...

 

[Moke]

I have one of those bed warmers too. She doesn't make a lot of noise but doesn't like to be steamrolled by a fat old man. Testy she gets! Be Well Brother, dito.

I understand the steamrollerin' thing, all too well.
So,... I built her her own tuffette on the top left corner of the bed (as viewed from the foot). Its a shallow depth plastic storage tote box, of perhaps 6" deep; it is placed on a couple of pieces of a rigid packing foam that reaches the floor, to give it height.
I stuffed it with a piece of old retired mattress topper pad, and, a favorite blanket over the foam. And, she gets covered with doll/baby blankets, as an extra level of spoiling.

Her tuffette on my bed. If I lay on my side, I can reach out on the level, and pet her. I cannot roll over on her her.

And, here is her winter favorite, the backside of the firebox/chimney. The chimney blocks become warm in the morning fire, and stay warm all night

This is on a resto-modded late 20's art-deco radio/record player cabinet that I found on craigslist. It had shorted out (the radio/amp portion), and was no longer working. The record player was a hand-crank multi-speed player, with a record destroyer tonearm. I have a large and valuable 78 rpm shellac collection dating abck to the early 20's, and I installed a professional radio broadcast record player from the nations leaading manufacturer of that time, and, high-quality tube amp (both from early to mid-50's equip't). I spent a huge amount of time in the resto-mod, and, now its a cat tuffette.

without a cat on it:

music,.... totally a thing for me, hugely, biggly; especially live music.

 

[Bandito]

I really enjoy seeing that record player/ cat bed. Get a good chuckle out of the cat running the household. That is because of my white curly haired terrorist, or rather a Bishon Frise`, lamb chop, the Peach who runs the house. If she barks the big dog is sure something is attacking so he let's out a vicious bark too. She scares the letter carrier away, she thinks! Peach barks at the carrier and the carrier leaves so Peach feels victorious and I am supposed to honor her for it. But I have to pellet most pests. I might add DEATH TO SQUIRRELS. Be Well Brothers, dito.