The Cat Wrangler

I can't understand people who hate cats. It's especially difficult as I have a few friends who fit into that category (excuse the pun) and they're really nice people who normally wouldn't hurt a fly yet advocate terrible punishments for the feline population. Names like "sneaky", "cunning" and "murderers" are used to describe my lovely fluffies and although half the time it's passed off as a joke in my heart of hearts I realise that they're deadly serious.

HOWEVER.....I have to agree with one thing they say and that is we do have a growing feral cat problem in the country. There are individuals who can't be bothered to take an unwanted litter of kittens to the RSPCA so dump them by the river or by the roadside and leave them to fend for themselves. Those that don't die a miserable death not surprisingly grow up to mistrust humans and live a wild life feasting on whatever they can catch.

The Friday after Christmas I was coming out the back door when I saw a small tabby form scooting across the back gate and behind the hedge. When I peered down I saw two gorgeous little striped faces with blue eyes looking folornly up at me from behind the wirenetting. I spent the rest of the morning trying to encourage these kittens out but they sat shivering miserably behind the water tank. I was unable to get to them as there were still piles of hedge cuttings along there so I spent a good twenty minutes pulling these away before positioning two carry cages at either end of the water tank blocking their escape. This is when I discovered there were actually three little kittens who had lost their mum (obviously at home knitting mittens) and were terrified.

I couldn't get them to move towards a cage but I knew my friend Denise was driving out for a visit and when she arrived I positioned her at one side of the tank with a broom while I was at the other waiting to usher them into a carry cage. Yeah well the best laid plans of mice and desperate house goddesses go astray when Denise started yelling that a rooster was pecking her bum. I had to manoeuvre myself out from behind the hen house, between the hedge cuttings and round the big tank to where Denise was only to find it was Artemis Fowl the brown shaver saying hello as she's wont to do. I swapped places with Denise and sat in the dirt wiggling the broom along the ground towards three very scared animals. Two ended down beside Denise but wouldn't go into the cage and a third made its way down to me. I went to pick it up and put it into a cage when it turned into a tiger. It ripped the hell out of hand and arm and three attempts to get it into the cage and shut the lid failed as it flew at me. By this time I was bloodied and yelling so had to let it go and it disappeared over the horizon along with its siblings. I doubt it had ever been touched by human hand before. It took a good 15 minutes to clean myself up and bandage some pretty bad scratches.

Last night I saw two of the kittens dancing in the paddock next door. They looked so adorable but these animals are going to end up killers feasting on the local birdlife, breeding like crazy until one of the farmers shoots them. As I sit here with Gypsy calmly asleep beside me, a happy cat whose hobby is sitting in the bathroom window watching a rat watch her up in the carport rafters, I finally understand something of where my cat hating friends are coming from. However like stray dogs it's not the cats fault- it's ours. Once again humans taking the easy way out and dodging their responsibilities.


Rant over. The garden is beginning to look tidy as Gine has had another chop back of the big tropical plant at the front. The chicks and their mother in the front carport are enjoying the extra sun in the morning. I have begun cutting back the heartsease along the front as well as they've become very long and leggy. I still have some to do but they've still got lots of flowers on and I want to press these. I dragged out my presses Monday and filled two large ones with Queen Anne's Lace heads. I've also finally dug out every thistle, blackberry plant and stinging nettle along the side of the drive so I don't have to worry about getting nipped when I weed there. Being organic is a tough way to go as spraying would be so much easier although not as good for the environment plus it annoys the fairies!