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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Lap Chicken and Predator

Not the same as a lap dance.
Fancy is talking continually while she is in my lap.

As I sat down outside to take a picture of my modest, but free harvest of eggs and Roma tomatoes, Fancy jumped right on my lap. I would say she is getting to be a bit familiar. I had to lean back to get these shots.  She leaned in a bit to look straight into the camera, but I did not capture the moment.  She gets no food at any of the tables because I do not want hens on tables when I eat.

"Just make me an omelet, please"
 
"I'm out of here, bwak."

Did I tell you I am allergic to feathers? I am! Okay. there go allergens all over me!

At one point Fancy was examining the old, tattered, paint-stained t-shirt I have on. I am silently screaming.
~~~Noooo, those are paint specks, not food. Please don't peck my chest! 


Some of these tomatoes fell off the plants as I touched them.
This is sort of a journal of what I get from the garden. All along,  I would get a jalapeno pepper once in a great while, so the two I posted are just a small amount of what I did get. You can tell there is no styling going on with that tomato oddly sitting on end. Today, once again, this could have been one meal.

Predator
Several nights ago as I came in well after dark, I saw and heard something move to my right as I came up the back steps. The hair on my neck and arms stood up. As I whirled, I caught site of an animal in a blur in the dark, and back legs disappearing through the window under the house. This filled me with dread since I thought the raccoon might be back. Several minutes later, while the door was unlocked, I looked back and could see an animal looking at me from under the house. It appeared to be a half-grown cat, black with white on the face and chest.

Late this evening toward dusk, as I went out with a nice, cooked, evening meal for the hens, consisting  of two eggs, scrambled with powdered milk and corn meal mixed in, this cat was at the back door again. This time, it was a few feet from the hens. I don't know if the cat was planning to pounce. When I first glimpsed it tonight, the hens were rushing toward it in an attempt to get to the meal in my hands, seemingly oblivious of the cat's presence. The cat ran off, either frightened by me or the hens. At any rate, the hens did not seem afraid and were not sounding the "predator" alarm they give. After the hens rushing toward the cat, maybe the cat will think the chickens will attack. Fancy could talk the cat to death.

Your turn
Do your farm animals who are not normally considered lap animals insist on sitting in your lap? Do neighbors' curious cats ever just come to look at your hens, or do they come to eat your hens?

 

4 comments:

  1. Does my dog Molly count? She is getting big but loves to sit on my lap!
    We don't have real farm animals yet but as you know, cougars, raccoons and wolves have been spotted around here. One year it was mink killing off the neighbors chickens and a friend lost an entire flock of pheasant, plus his turkeys and geese (and I mean hundreds here) to coyotes and coons.
    We use to have tomcats all over the place but they have been killed off. Yes, it's legal.

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  2. Oh no! I suppose Molly counts as a farm animal.

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  3. Ah, I love how she sits on your lap. A great post.

    We have cats visit - neighbours' cats... they stalk the birds in our trees and bushes and then do their business in our garden!

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  4. Susan,

    Thanks, I enjoyed writing that post.

    Sprinkle red pepper around the garden, most heavily on the perimeter. Even if you ground peppers and poured it around between the plants, the cats would stay away.

    I love/hate cats! Stalking birds and doing their business at my house is unacceptable.I try mightily to discourage both behaviors.

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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.