The Cat is a Lonely Hunter

. . . but not always. Sometimes my cats hunt as individuals, and sometimes they hunt as a pack

Most of my cats are good mousers. I have some resident barn cats whose job is is to eliminate rodents whenever possible, but some of the house cats are also good mousers. Once in a while, a house cat will decide to try out the barn cat life for a while. That's what Olivia, one of the old lady house cats, did last month.

Olivia decided to try her hand—er, paw—at mousing and ratting. She had a meeting with the barn cats and two of them—Sherman and Spotz—accepted her on a provisional basis. Olivia then moved out of the house and into the barn. The problem is that old Olivia has no teeth, a definite handicap when catching mice.

However, Sherman helped her out. Below, Spotz and Olivia watched something in the distance:

It was Sherman, returning with something in his mouth.

He put the little brown critter down for Olivia to see.

Olivia moved in for a closer look.

Then Sherman returned to his catch—a wood-rat. 

He gave Olivia another chance at it.

. . .  and she again moved in for a closer inspection.

They continued to "hunt" the wood-rat. But they were getting a little serious, so I moved on.

Like Spotz who decided to roll in the gravel rather than participate in the action, I didn't want to get involved with what would likely happen next.

Olivia spent a couple of weeks outside as a barn cat—even during some really heavy rain. Then, one night last week, she appeared at the deck door well after dark and wanted in. She's slept inside at night ever since, but she goes out at dawn and heads for the barn.

I think she wants the best of both worlds.

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