Working Cats

While I've posted pictures of the housecats numerous times on this blog, I haven't posted much about the outside cats. There are four full-time outside cats: Spotz, Max, Skippy, and Cedrick, plus two of the resident housecoats—Tanner and Jim-Bob—who work a dayshift outside. While Spotz and the feral cat Max work in the area of the shop, the other four work around the house and occasionally in the pasture. These four are the ones pictured in this post.

We found Tanner at the dumpster in March 2013. He was only a few months old and had likely been dumped. Fortunately he came to me when I called him, so he didn't get squashed by a truck that was pulling away from the dumpster.

Tanner

Jim-Bob and his sister Chloe were born here in 2009. Chloe used to work in the pasture until she vanished for nine days in 2019 and finally returned home badly injured. She now works on rat patrol in the garage at night. Jim-Bob and Tanner are good buddies, but Jim-Bob hates Skipy and Cedrick.

Jim-Bob

Skippy and Cedrick are full-time outside cats. Skippy used to live down the road, but he started showing up for breakfast several years ago when he was about six months old. His owner used to come retrieve him and take him home, but Skippy would be back the next day. Mornings when I went out to feed, I'd see Skippy running down the road toward me. He really wanted to be live here.

Skippy

I can't remember how long Skippy has been around, but it's at least seven years. Maybe more. His owner never had him neutered, so Skippy would occasionally go looking for love for several weeks at a time. He always returned, though. After his owner had moved away five or six years ago, Skippy made our place his headquarters. He really wanted to sign on as our cat, but I told him the rule was he'd have to submit to neutering and a rabies shot if he wanted to stay here. 

In 2018, he vanished for more than a month. When he returned, he was missing both his manhood and the tip of one ear, so I figured someone, thinking he was a feral cat, had trapped him and had him neutered. He's officially lived here ever since. I figure that Otis and Charlotte, who were dumped here as tiny kittens in June 2018, were the last ones he sired. They have Skippy's distinctive green eyes, gray color and thick fur.

Cedrick showed up a few years ago and was wild for a while, but he tamed down in a few weeks. He appeared to be four or five months old and, since he never went looking for love, apparently had been neutered.  I don't know how he found his way here. 

Cedrick

Cedrick took up with Skippy and they became pals. However, he hates Tanner and Jim-Bob. Tanner and Jim-Bob hate him, too.

After breakfast, Skippy and Cedrick rally to plan their day's cat-work.  

Sometimes, they'll hunt around the gazebo. A groundhog often lives under the gazebo, but the cats prefer to hunt small rodents.

Sometimes Jim-Bob watches them from a nearby hunting spot.

Sometimes they hunt in opposite directions . . .

. . . but then check to see if the other might have missed something.

They know that sometimes it's best to sit still and wait . . .

. . . and occasionally check to see if anything interesting is overhead . . ..

. . . or behind.

Meanwhile, Tanner has found a good hiding place—or  maybe it's a hunting blind.

But these outside cats know that good things come to those who wait—at least often enough that they keep waiting. 

Successful cat-work apparently involves a lot of waiting.

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