Each time we go away on holiday, our wonderful next door neighbour, Barbara, feeds the Curly cat for us. Twice a day she comes out, whatever the weather, and her only reward for this kind deed is to be hissed and spat at. This has been the case for years, but yesterday Curly finally decided to be-friend Barbara, much to her, and my total astonishment! All over her she was…curling around her legs, tail high, and purring loudly with pleasure.
Taken aback by this sudden show of affection, Barbara told Curly that if she demonstrated the same friendly attitude towards her husband Ken, then she would consider her moving in with them. Wow….Curly may just get a home yet…..having said that, she still hates Ken, he gets the hissing, spitting AND the flattened ears!!!!
So, anyway….Barbara had come around to ask me to mind her place for a couple of weeks as she had managed to book one of her last minute holidays …..which overlapped with dates we’d booked for a break in the Lakes!!! Drat and darn it!!! Fortunately, we managed to change our dates to April so all’s well that ends well!
Life is totally chaotic at the rescue at the moment due to urgent repairs being carried out on the wildlife unit. All the animals have been moved out and are now spread right across the rescue. We now spend our time desperately searching for animal feed and bedding and running up and down stairs and across fields to tend to the animals. Totally exhausting it is! And as we have no running water we have to run around carrying heavy water buckets to wash the animal’s bowls.
During the move the pigeons and doves were MOST put out. Their feed was LATE!!! How dare we make them wait!!!! The problem was finding their food…..
Then the real fun started. All the cages were dismantled and the mice came pouring out of the insulation between the cages. Hundreds of the critters were swarming around the unit while two of us tried to catch them. I received several bites, but having said that, I’d bite too under the circumstances!
The captured critters were placed in cat carriers and released in the fields with a stash of seed to keep them going. I have no doubt that they’ll all be back soon though….they seem to having a homing instinct.
And of course on top of all this chaos the first baby birds have started coming in. This funny little pigeon chick with the wonderful wart on it’s head needs hand feeding. Now WHERE is it’s food?
This is a pic of the animal graveyard at the rescue. All the old timers that have died in the shelter are buried here. It’s a very special place that has a calm soothing energy. Lot’s of staff claim to have seen the ghost of an old German shepherd dog walking around here. I’ve never seen it……but I have seen lot’s of…….
Rats…..oh yes. As big as rabbits and as bold as brass they are. There’s a group of them that live in the graveyard, they’re really aged and almost totally tame. We walk past them every day and they don’t bat an eyelash. I have to admit to being rather fond of them……now come on, don’t shudder like that!
And finally…..the barn owl is in an aviary. It’s eye has now healed beautifully and it’s flying and eating well so will be released when it gets a little fatter. Now isn’t that utterly splendid!!!
Those rats are absolutely ridiculous! xxx
Lol ….aren’t they just!!!xxxxx
I really enjoyed your previous post about the whales – what an experience that must have been! I hope your rescue centre is back to ‘normal’ soon ~ it’s enough work as it is without upsetting the applecart! Glad to hear ‘owl is well’ 😉 Wouldn’t be too keen on rats in the graveyard or anywhere else for that matter…I’d be highlighting out of there in a flash 🙂
Thanks Glo, aren’t whales AMAZING? I really don’t have words when it comes to describing them!!!
Lol, I can’t wait for the applecart to be righted!!!
It’s funny that the bold rats hang out in the graveyard!!! Now listen Mrs….you’d hightail from a mouse, yet wander around without a weapon with BEARS??????? lol xxxxx
The photo of the Curly is wonderful – looks so furry and soft and cuddly!
The mice look incredibly cute and I don’t have a fear of or a revulsion to, rats and how funny that the birds get so offended and upset when their routines aren’t kept to!
good luck with getting the place all sorted and ship-shape – what a lot of hard work – you are wonderful to do so much and I’m so glad there are peeps like you to do it. Am glad the owl’s eye is better and can be released eventually – that is excellent news!
sounds as if you love your work with the rescue – sounds very rewarding!xxxx
Awwwww….thanks Arose. You are most definitely in the minority [with me] in not loathing rodents.
The birds are hilarious! They actually look physically angry, talk about bird body language!
It is brilliant re the owl, and I’m hoping the place is a little more modern after all the work.xxxxx
Sometimes I see rats waddling across the lane and the young ones sometimes stop and turn their heads to look at me and we have a good look at each other! I think they look cute!! And I think micey things are very very cute indeed…. 🙂 xxxx I do think most rodents are just too cute……
Ahhhhh….AT LAST!!!! A girl after me own heart who aint afeared of rodents! There’s no doubting their intelligence is there….they are curious, canny and excellent survivors, just like us.
I think they’re cute too!xxxxx
The graveyard has been there for ages and has little plaques with the animal’s names on. Lol, rats are not everybody’s cup of tea!xxxxx
How sweet that you have a graveyard for the animals that die at the rescue. I must say, tame or not the rat gives me the shivers.
This is seriously amazing work you are doing here! These sweet creatures are so lucky to have you looking after them (even if they can get a little spoiled and demanding!)
Thanks Erik, our critters are certainly demanding and have us very well trained!!!xxxxx
Bats in the belfry and rats in the graveyard. Yuck! Its just on spring for you up there and I guess there will be a number of victims of winter.
Lol……my rats are not at all popular are they?
We’ve had a ferocious winter this year, the plants are behaving like spring is here yet we are still getting snow.xxxxx
We have a house that is over 100 years old and it has a stone foundation. Each winter mice find the odd crack and sneak into the house where it is warm. We usually live trap them and move them to a new home in the nearest field, but this year a few have evaded our efforts. Such a nuisance! I have had to put all the food stored in plastic boxes. Maybe it is time to get a cat!
Oh what a pain…..we often get mice creeping in our house too and I live trap them. A cat is a good deterent to mice that’s for sure!xxxxx
Your story about Curly was rather familiar to me. It could be that Curly associated their care with your being gone, and so had no patience for them. This time, maybe, the situation was understood. In any case, cats have such an independent spirit. Hoping that the shelter animals will survive this period of reconstruction.
Ahha! Maybe you’re right Shimon, and Curly is particularly single minded!
It would be lovely if she managed to move in with the neighbours!xxxxx
Wonderful news about the barn owl. It hasn’t taken long for his eye to heal, so I bet he won’t be in your care for too much longer. It looks like there’s some changes going on at the rescue at the moment, I wonder how long it will be before the mice are back again.
It is such a fab outcome re the owl….hopefully it will be gone in a few more days.
Lol….I have no doubt the mice will find a way of getting back in, they always do!!!xxxxx
Hi, thank you so much for visiting rusty duck today and leading me here.
A barn owl, oh I’d love to see one. We have tawny owls calling in the woods constantly but I would love to be close to a barn owl.
The mice you can keep.. we have enough of those already!!!
Jessica x
Wow! Lucky you having tawny owls, I hear them here but rarely see them. We did have a tawny at the rescue last year, it was such an amazing creature and happily went back to the wild.
Lol, yes mice and rats are not for everyone!xxxxx
Ha ha ha, I particularly enjoyed the battalions of birds all lined up tapping their feet and demanding to know why their scullion dared to be LATE … 😉 But I really couldn’t live with rats and mice, sorry … why on earth has Curly suddenly changed her mind???!!! Never a dull moment, SB!
Hahahaha…..they are so funny when thwarted our old releases…..very intelligent birds are pieons and doves!
Lol….yes mice and rats are certainly not everyone’s cup of tea!!!
Now Curly…..a mystery she is, it’s only taken four years for her to decide she likes Barbara!xxxxx
Mice are one thing, but rats quite another! I would imagine that such old tough rats arent even interesting to a larger beast or bird for dinner! But those little mice – yum! my hawks that keep all in check would find them quite tasty!
Hawks? you have HAWKS???? x
I expect the mice will be back if they’d found a good home at the rescue. I’m so glad the barn owl is getting better; I saw one in hunting in the field next to us last week – the first time in ages. A wonderful sight. But I can’t take to rats, I’m afraid – even bold ones. And these ones sound very large.
Lol, yes I have no doubt that the mice will eventually find their way home!!! Hopefully the repairs to the unit will keep them outside. It’s wonderful to see the owl recover it’s such a beautiful placid creature which is good for us when we have to handle it! How lovely that you got to see one hunting, they are so eerie and quiet aren’t they? Almost ghostly!
Lot’s of people can’t abide rats, ours are more like rabbits though!Oh yes….huge they are!!!xxxxx
What an exciting and busy life you lead it must be so rewarding and I am sure all your animals will enjoy the benefits of the improvements that are going on. Good that Olly the Owl is doing well. As for the rats – urghh – when I kept hens I used to be overrun with them – they could gnaw their way into anything they became a real pest.
Thanks Elaine, life at the rescue is always busy but as you say so very rewarding. The repairs should make life a little easier and hopefully they’ll be completed in a few weeks. Olly, what a wonderful name!!! Yes the owl is set to go soon, hopefully the weather will improve.
Oh yes, gnawing!!! The mice are demons on that front along with the rats. They must have been after the chicken feed….they do seem able to eat anything! One of the staff at wildlife is scared stiff of mice and rats so is constantly jumping every time she sees one…..xxxxx
I’m sure that being busy with repairs going on is the last thing you need. It’s always the way though isn’t it.
My cousin had a cat like that which would hiss and lash out at everybody then one day she got on my lap, curled up and went to sleep. Thankfully she moved before I had to as I’m sure she would have dug her claws in had I tried moving her.
I think that the best thing that can be said about rats is out of sight out of mind!
Glad to see that the barn owl is now okay. xx
Lol……cats eh! They sure do have minds of their own. Curly does seem very like your cousin’s cat…I’m glad it moved before you had to move it!!!
I’ve heard it said that there is a rat for every inch of the world…..wow, what a lot of rats the world has. Our are huge!!! They could certainly take a cat on.
It’s been wonderful seeing the barn owl recover, makes it all worthwhile. Thanks Flighty.xxxxx
Why, oh, why is it that the cutest cats are sometimes the most awful tease? I’m glad Curly has at least warmed up to Barbara! I got our Sammy when she was an outgoing playful kitten. She turned out to be the orneriest scaredy cat of the four! Still cute as a button, though.
As for those rats… I’m not sure how I’d feel about them. Maybe I’d get used to their scurrying presence, who knows. Hope the rescue is back to normal soon!
Lol….cats are such unpredictable creatures aren’t they? Curly rolls around on her back waiting for me to rub her tummy then switches mood in a second if someone else approaches. She really can be vicious with people. I can’t believe your Sammy can be scary, she looks sooooo sweet!
Lol….the thing with the rats is they don’t behave at all like rats, they’re so used to us they have no fear at all so just graze in the grass peacefully, they really do seem like tame rabbits and are about the same size.xxxxx
So, what you’re saying is, if the rats simply had more fluff (and maybe a short puff of a tail), they’d be much more welcome than they are now? I don’t think I’ve seen rats in the open, behaving like tame rabbits or not!
Sammy, believe it or not, will chase the boys and box their ears without hesitation. Of course, she cries when they run after her. Emmaline doesn’t engage with Wimsey or George at all. She flattens her ears and hisses long and loud.
Hahahaha…..I think I’ll have to accept that I’m in the minority where rats are concerned.
I really love Sammy’s attitude, what a clever girl, boxing the boys ears then running away crying knowing full well her Mummy will protect her!!! It seems your girl cats have attitude!
Way to go girls!!!xxxxx
Go you, powerhousing through all that work. I know that despite the birdsthrowing a few strops, that all the animals will love the improvements…even the rats! I can’t get over the size of the one in your photo. Xx
Thanks Sam, hopefully the unit will be mouse proof for a while when the repairs are completed.
The birds are so funny, if they line up and glare at us if their food is late. The rats in the graveyard are huge, I think that’s why I don’t even see them as rats, more like rabbits grazing in the grass.xxxxx
Such adventures! Not sure I could handle it all as peacefully as you, Snow Bird: What a gift you and your friends are to all these beautiful creatures! I can understand the doves and pigeons’ impatience; my bird guests lack all etiquette when my feeders empty. had to hightail it out with seed before today’s snowstorm arrives.
Hope the rescue repairs will go well and efficiently. So happy the owl is healing well. Yay!
And Curly is gorgeous!
Lol….I’m not really handling the changes at the rescue very well, it’s so hard trying to find things as they have been stashed all over the rescue!. Routine being turned upside down has everyone’s nerves on edge, hopefully it will be sorted in a few weeks and then we can all settle back down.
The birds were so funny, if they could have stamped their feet they would have done.
Goodness me, are you still having snowstorms….I bet your back to sighing Swedish film style. Keep warm…..says I shivering at the thought!xxxxx