Tuesday 6 September 2011

Farm Cats


We have had our farm cats for about six years. They came as very wild young kittens from a neighbouring farm which had become overrun with feral cats. They were already named, very imaginitively, as Blackie and Creamy (no prizes for guessing which is which).

Creamy had a Siamese father we presume as there was a very randy Siamese Tom in the area and many of the feral progeny had Siamese features. I wouldn't blame any feral female for falling for him as he was such a beautiful cat. But it did mean that Creamy was especially wild.

Over the years Blackie has become tamer. He now comes into the utility room and calls loudly for milk every evening. Once the bowl is put in place he calls Creamy to come up the yard and, providing there is no-one about, Creamy cautiously creeps up for milk.
But recently Creamy has become braver and last week he came just inside the door. It is still impossible to approach him or stroke him but I did manage to get this photograph.

They more than earn their keep - they keep down the mice and rats and young rabbits very efficiently. ?

14 comments:

Sandy said...

How adorable are Creamy and Blackie! I love your blog. I wish I could visit England some day it's such a lovely country.

H said...

I like cats very much, but I'm allergic to them; something to do with hormonal changes after giving birth to Ben 17 years ago. Pain!

Cats do a good job around the farm! It's a good trade off for a bowl of milk and a warm place to sleep :)

angryparsnip said...

Lovely photos, beautiful cats, wonderful story.
I love when you write about the farm animals.

cheers, parsnip

Elizabeth said...

Creamy is stunningly beautiful.
I love being yelled at by hungry cats.
A pity they are not tamer but then they might not do their jobs so well!

Gerry Snape said...

lovely cats! We have a cat at the moment which has adopted us. She's on my latest post. She has extra toes if you like on all her four paws and that makes her walk very precisely . I don't like to feed her as she is healthy...but she is here almost all day...and I miss my cat who died so it's nice to have a surrogate one if you know what I mean!

Titus said...

Lovely photo and tale, but most of all I like the names! My first two 'pet' lambs were called... Larry and Blackie.

Rubye Jack said...

So very much do I want a cat, but I'm afraid one of the scorpions would sting it. Or, if left outside god knows what could get it in this wilderness wanna be close to town and civilization place. However! I have not seen a scorpion in a couple of weeks and maybe, just maybe, a cat can be found. They don't seem to have wild cats around here. Isn't that strange?

Pondside said...

There are three feral cats around here but they don't keep the mouse and rat population down. We've left food and milk for them but they aren't interested - I wish they'd become attached to the place and do a little work!

Rachel Phillips said...

Last summer a stray little black cat turned up and gave birth to kittens under our weighbridge. She was not much more than a kitten herself. She later moved them across the yard to an old picnic basket she found in a shed. Very clever cat. To cut a long story short, I kept all four of the kittens, all black, and my brother kept the mum. They are lovely beautiful cats and very volatile and always announce when they come into the house, loudly. We named them Fire Cat, White Bib, Thomas, and Skinny.

Heather said...

I like cats apart from the neighbouring ones who use our garden as a toilet and don't tidy up afterwards! Yours look very appealing and how nice that they are gradually beginning to trust you enough to come inside. They obviously enjoy their 'work' on the farm.

thousandflower said...

Our "working" cats are an important part of the farm. Don't know what we'd do without them. They keep the rats and rabbits under control.

The Weaver of Grass said...

I shall tell the cats about your kind comments. A bit of praise never goes amiss. Thanks for joining in.

Mary said...

Well I don't have a farm, unfortunately, however plenty of feral cats roam our neighborhood!

Love your guys - I'm a cat person and shared my life with my beloved Tiny (a huge fluffy Maine Coon) for 21 yrs. She's been gone almost 10 yrs. and I still miss her.

Crafty Green Poet said...

what lovely cats (though I'll pretend I didn't readthe bit about them hunting rabbits). When i was growing up our neighbours had acat called Blackie, who adopted me as its owner.