The Hunter

Don't let this beautiful creature fool you! She can take care of herself and she's quite a hunter or should I say huntress?

You can see what a beautiful coat of fur she has but look closely (click on the photo if you'd like) and look at her ears. They have long hair inside them. Also, you can't see them in this photo but she has long hair over her paws. A friend of my girls ( a young man ) told me once that if you see a cat that has these features, he or she is a hunter.

Lately, SOMEONE has been hunting or maybe ALL are hunting! One morning this week, as my husband was leaving the house, he saw a yellowhammer woodpecker on our back porch on his back and Halle, the cat above, was hovering over the bird so we figured she must have knocked him down and was there for the "kill". We both didn't want the woodpecker to be killed by the cat, so I guarded him and shooed the cat away while my husband went to the garage to get a shovel and a box to put him in. He was still alive. After that, we didn't know what we were going to do with him and decided to worry about that later but as it turned out, we didn't have to worry about it because before my husband could get back from the garage, I stood there and watched the woodpecker turn over on his stomach and fly off! I really think he trusted me and thought I was guarding him from the cat!

After I told my husband goodbye, I went back into the house to finish vacuuming the house and found about a 5 to 6 inch frog hopping around in the foyer! Thank goodness, my granddaughter left her butterfly net here and I thought about that. I got the net and captured the frog and let him go outside!

Then last night, we had just gone to bed when our little dog went into the kitchen and was barking incessantly and it was keeping me awake. I tried to get my husband to go in there to see what he was barking at because I was afraid it might be a snake! He was so tired, he just couldn't get up so I got up and went into the kitchen. There was my little dog barking at another frog! He had the frog cornered and finally grabbed him into his mouth and went through the pet door outside. I opened the door to follow him to make sure he turned him loose outside (which he did). So I felt comfortable going back to bed and went to sleep.

We never know what we'll find inside the house that either the dog or one of the three cats bring inside. We just have to guess most of the time which one is the culprit. It was clear who got the woodpecker.

Halle brought a snake inside the house about four years or so ago. I was rearranging furniture in the extra bedroom downstairs about 10 am when I saw this snake coiled up next to the wall. I know she did it because she was in there with me and very excited about seeing it. I just had this feeling she brought it inside. So I called my husband at work and told him about it. He said to kill it. I asked how. He said to get a broom or mop or something and whack it but shut the door so it couldn't get out just in case I missed. I got a flat sponge mop and whacked. All this snake did was try to run up under the rug so I called my husband back and begged him to come home and kill this snake. He did. A co-worker's husband worked at the zoo and asked him to put it in a container and bring it to her at work and she would find out what type of snake it was for us. Her husband told us that it was a very popular kind of snake for pets and if we saw any more, could we catch them and give them to the zoo because people were asking constantly for these snakes for pets.

No thanks!