H -- Hunting

H is for hunting.

When we lived on the farm, we were expected to hunt the mice that would otherwise eat the grain. It wouldn't hurt if we kept the rodents who dug up the lawn under control as well.

Smudge, our mother, taught us how to hunt by catching the prey (often a mouse) and bringing it back to the shed so we could kill it and eat it. One time, Parker got the mouse and growled at anykitty or any person who got too close until she ate it all up . Another time, long-haired Mama brought it back, but we all passed it around until either Smudge or Parker got it. Later on, the other queens would bring something back to the colony, often mrrapping or mrrowing as they carried it back. One time, Greyneck / Pretty Gray Lady was late for dinner. She then emerged from under the shelves with a feather hanging from her mouth. Sometimes, the queens brought back a mouse, and nobody ate it. So it just sat there until the human threw it out with the used kitty litter.

I learned to be a good hunter rather quickly. One afternoon, I came back with a pregnant mole. It was way more than I could eat. So we took the babies and the liver and gave them to the little kittens. Another time, I heard a vole (or field mouse) in the ground. I reached in and grabbed out of the ground and took it behind the shed. I put it down, but ... it dug back into the ground and got away. (Well, our human got it from there.) Another time, I caught a mouse and was holding it with my thumb paw until it got too tired to fight back. One of my last major hunting victories that my human saw was an eastern meadowlark. He knew it was some kind of meadowlark, but couldn't figure out if it was eastern or western until he played some videos for Parker. She watched the eastern meadowlark intently, but ignored the western meadowlark.

I also spent some time in the evenings chasing bugs; my human would come talk to me while I chased them after he locked the gate.

Shortly before Parker left the farm, she climbed a tree one morning after the human brought her some breakfast. She raided a bluebird's nest and came down with one of the chicks. Mama bluebird made her complaints known the rest of the morning.

There were also some other animals that our mothers brought back, like lizards or frogs.