This guy is now living in the barn so he can eat all the mice that my boys say we are being overrun with...more about the mice problem below. I think it is a creative ploy to keep a "pet" snake in the barn. Dear readers, I have to go in the barn! Frequently! What's a mother to do?
Then these three little cuties arrived....look at that boy and tell me if you could have said no.
The calico has a name, Lily. The others are still waiting for theirs. Three kittens, three boys....what are the odds? The boys are busy convincing me that we are struggling with the rat/mouse population and thus we need all these additional kitties. I hope they are good at catching said mice because I can't afford to feed them all kitten chow!
Speaking of said mice. I don't have pictures of this next critter. We had a young couple from church to dinner last week. We had a lovely meal and played some board games as we got to know them better. Good food, great conversation and lots of laughter - the perfect evening. (Never believe this until your guests are in their car headed home.)
As they were gathering their things, I let the dog out the door. We stood there chatting and saying good bye when I let the dog back in the door....Jeremy said (way to calmly in my opinion) "She has something in her mouth". I am thinking great, what embarrassing thing did she drag in...until she dropped the furry gray thing and it RAN UNDER THE CHAIR! RAN UNDER THE CHAIR, PEOPLE! In front of our company....these were city people who long for a country life...at least they did till they came to my farm....not sure how they feel now that they watched our dog "fetch" a fat and furry gray mouse and deliver it to the middle of our living room!
It was great "fun" watching the boys grab gloves and try to catch the mouse. I don't think it was moving very well - perhaps the result of being in a dogs mouth for a few minutes. They did finally catch it or I would be writing to you from the safety of a lovely hotel room! I would have taken pictures of all of this but I couldn't reach my camera from the chair I was standing on....do.not.laugh. I do not like mice confined in small spaces...such as...oh.... any type of building. Perhaps a leftover reaction from the ten million times I read "A Mouse in the House" to Elijah or maybe it is because of the time a mouse ran up my leg and was headed for my face....I survived....just barely! Now, I have decided that a chair is the safest place to be when confronted with a mouse in the house.
Perhaps the kittens are a good idea after all....
Posts
Ah, mice, did I ever tell you the time I put on my "work around the house pants" that I had thrown on the floor the night before and discovered I had a "little visitor". I am not a screamer, BUT I was then...it gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it, and it was over 7 years ago!
ReplyDeleteGo kitties!
I must apologize... i laughed. I laughed because of the mental picture and well this has happened in my house before... different creatures (mice, snakes, birds) but all of them just about as traumatizing. We had lots of cats growing up they were indoor/outdoor and even though it was the city we had a piece of property behind us that was used as a garden space and a small section of woods next to us that was home to a lot of creatures that cats enjoy. :)
ReplyDeleteby the way the kittens are ADORABLE, the snake... not so much *shudders*
ReplyDeleteCharming kittens, charming son! Nice snake...
ReplyDeleteMy parents have 2 cats: Max and "Weasel" (he earned this nickname). For a couple years Weasel had to be kept indoors (my mom worried that he'd run off, he was well, weasel-y.) But Max would patrol the yard, kill what prey he could find, drop it at the back door to let my parents see, and continue inside. Once indoors, Max was "off-duty" and was a very lethargic cat ready for his food dish and a nap.
You see where this is going. Once Max's "trophy" wasn't quite dead, and when he stepped inside so did his prey. But Max was off-duty! He went for a nap. Weasel, however, was growling with fur on end, fixedly staring at the base of the couch where the mouse fled, which was the first my parents realized Max's "prey" came in with him.
Weasel eventually caught the mouse. Max never even acted interested in the whole chase! Weasel eventually became an outdoor cat and he catches more rodents & birds than Max these days.
Hi there, What a great post...thanks for sharing it. I wondered what type of snake it was, it almost looked like a rattler which we had tons of in CA. and I thought I'd left them behind just to find out that we have them in CO. too. Actually even though I had girls snakes dont' bother me, just the rats and mice.
ReplyDeleteBlessings to you and yours.
Noreen
snakes are great, and eat LOTS AND LOTS of those bad bugs. We are homeschooling, and moved 900 miles away from everyone we knew to have a small farm! nice blog!
ReplyDeleteGodd Morning, I laughed at the mouse story but the last night we had a mouse story too. Ugh! I live with my daughter and sil and family. My daughter came into my room after we all had turned in for the night. She thought the cat had thrown up a hairball on her bed but apparently it really was a baby mouse that Tigger the cat(our oldest one too) had brought to her. So it should follow that where there is a baby mouse there has to be a momma mouse and more babies somewhere in this house. Possibly they are in the basement where the litter boxes are. We don't go down there much but the cats do. We had to go to sleep last night not knowing where they were. We also had found within the last few days a roll of paper towels really chewed up on one side from the garage. So maybe they are there or there is more. UGH Again Blessings
ReplyDeleteI had a farming Grandfather from WV who taught me if you have good snakes on your land you won't have bad ones. He would catch black snakes and king snakes and release them on his farm and they would keep the copperheads away,
ReplyDeleteI had a neighbor one time who hated snakes (I am not a fan, myself) and he shot all the black snake in our yards (we did have a lot of them) within a few days Jessi ran into a copperhead on the front porch as she went out to feed our cats! I was pretty up set with my neighbor...... I hate snake. But they are quite beneficial!
The kitties are BEAUTIFUL!! Lily is a wonderful name.
I am not a fan of snakes myself but will leave black snakes alone because I know if they're here there is something here they eat! We do kill the copperheads though! With three young girls and a yard full of kudzu, we'd hate for one of them to run into a copperhead! I enjoy reading your blog. Blessings, Tina
ReplyDeleteOh my! Snakes make me want to grab my shotgun! The kittens are adorable though. Now cute kittens are my kind of answer to the mouse problem. :)
ReplyDeleteAs per a previous comment, I have heard that you should keep the good snakes to keep away the bad snakes. I still have difficulty using good and snake in the same sentence though.
Tracy
Awwwwwww!!! They look so happy. I think I'm going to cry. :-) Did I mention Lily eats a lot?
ReplyDeleteWe have four more children down with chicken pox. The two vaccinated children have it the worse. I need to get together and get some jewelweed soap. I don't trust myself enough yet to pick some jewelweed without supervision and it would take too long to make it.
Will try to call at a decent hour.
Love and hugs!
Loved the story of the mouse. Had a good laugh over that! We had a cat bring a lizard in over the summer he was so miffed at me for putting it back out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the snake in the barn it would freak me out. But I have found coons and opposums in ours on a few occasions. That is a hoot to walk up on one of them. You and the animal jump.
My barn kitties are a great treat for me they don't keep the above animals out but we have no mice or snakes in the barn. A word of advice get them fixed we had 3 and ended up with a few from the neighbors and now have loads. We had 29 a few weeks ago but now are down to 10.
Love your blog Erika@pioneerhomemaker