Farm Fresh Blog

**CAUTION** GROSS PICTURE BELOW **  (Well, not really by my standards, but other people have much lower standards for what is disgusting, so I'm just throwin' it out there.)

Animal Planet does a show where they list the Top Ten Most Dangerous Animals. Guess what is the #1 most dangerous animal on this planet.

Yes, the common house cat.

Cats kill the most diverse assortment of animals in such numbers that they actually ranked as the most dangerous animal on the planet. (but they're really soft and they purr and sharks don't do that!)

So when the rats in the barn began to eat us out of house and home, we turned to mercenaries. Hired killers. Hit men. Hit Kitties.

Other Half, who is no fan of cats, wanted to see a pile of dead rat bodies at the barn door the morning after the cats arrived. We haven't seen that yet, but the rats have hit the road. I don't know where they went. Frankly, I don't care. (Probably the neighbor's farm since he doesn't have a barn cat.) Anyway I now see cats where I used to see rats. It makes my heart smile to see a large black cat draped across the same board in the rafter where rats used to scurry. It makes my heart smile to see two little black faces appear from underneath the feed room where rat tunnels ran like a New York City Subway system.

Do you know what doesn't make me smile?

This.

This made me grimace. It made Other Half howl in anger. This was his rabbit. Well, not really his. It was a wild rabbit that was choosing to hang out in the pasture near the barn. Other Half used to admire him at night. I think the proximity to the barn made the rabbit feel safe from the coyotes that cry in the dark. It's been here for months. We often wondered how it avoided Briar. Apparently Briar doesn't move as fast as a ninja cat.

I found the rabbit's partially eaten body in the cats' stall. The next day nothing was left but two feet, some fur, and a fluffy cotton tail.   :(

Since the cats arrived, Briar hasn't had free run of the barnyard because I didn't want her to chase away my feral cats before they had settled. Tonight I let her come into the barn with me. She immediately snatched up a half-eaten can of cat food, but then she dropped it in favor of the bunny parts she found. (Since the can was full of fire ants this was probably a wiser choice.) Briar selected a large chunk of bunny fur and immediately exited the barn. I called to her, but she gave a furtive glance over her shoulder and picked up the pace. Girlfriend didn't want to take any chances that I planned on crossing bunny fur off her diet. I actually didn't mind her eating the fur, but in her defense, this is how she believes I've mapped out her diet:

Dog Food
People Food
Fast food bags containing old tacos
dead rats
dead oppossums
dead squirrels
Lily
The Garbage Man

So she hustled her big white butt out to the pasture and settled down to eat her prize.

I still feel bad for the rabbit, but at least no part of him was wasted. There is nothing left now but two little feet, and there is no doubt in my mind that Briar hasn't forgotten about them either. The next time she gets into that stall those feet will go faster than chicken wings at a Superbowl party.