Stable cats!

kit279

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 January 2008
Messages
3,612
Visit site
Who has stable cats?! Are they friendly?

Was poking about our new yard today (fantastic amount of crap being stored in the stables including a Formula 1 car..) and met our new stable kitty and she is GORGEOUS! We walked around the field checking for rabbit holes and making sure the fencing was secure and she boinged about the fields with us every step of the way - must have been about 2-3 miles walking! And she caught two mice along the way and was quite chubby and very talkative. I am so loving the new stable kitty - at home we only have two hulking great male cats and two hulking great geldings, I must say I am craving some female company! I just wanted to steal her! Will try and get a picture because I have a feeling she's going to be coming out with me every morning to check the horses...
smile.gif
smile.gif
 
we have 2 kittens at the mo that appeared 3 days ago but they are to friendly to be yard cats. i want to take them home but OH wont let me
 
My cat was born at local farm and has always lived out in the barn (he is now 5) in fact he was in the stables before the horses so think he is in charge. Loves helping with whatever you are doing, particularly poo picking the field, doing the muck heap (cos you might disturb a mouse) helping my dad chop wood etc loves a stroke, prefers not to be held but will happily sit on you lap. Everyone is always surprised how friendly he is in comparison to their cats but I think cos he doesn't always get lots of attention he is always happy to get it/
 
My cat follows me out to the stables at night when I check on the horses. The cat who lives in the yard (and in my cottage if she can get past the dog!) is very friendly and hangs out in the stables demanding attention and will follow you round the fields if she feels like it. We are currently trying to tame her latest kittens (2 marmalade, 2 black and white and a cute little allsorts) to be as friendly!
 
my yard cat comes with me when im walking the fencing, and helps doing the hay or water. hes very vocal and is never happier than either having a cuddle or being fed. he even comes running to meet us as soon as he hears the car turn up and us get out
 
Our cat is a bit special
wink.gif
He rides on peoples shoulders like a parrot, or slung around someones neck, he even thinks his tummy is velcro and he lies up a chest with only a paw over the persons shoulder. He goes for rides to the muck heap and comes out to the fields with us
grin.gif
 
Theres about 5 cats all friendly and one feral that goes for the horses tails .The yo has 4 dogs which are all lovely and well trained apart from the fact thet they will nick the horse feed .
 
I have 4 barn cats who live in the hay loft and are all very friendly. There are two females and two giant males, but they're all neutered. They stay up in the loft when the dogs are out but when the dogs are locked up (in the afternoons when the hens and ducks are out) they come down and follow me around, I also meet them when I'm off hacking and have one who jumps on and sits on my shoulder and gets a lift home!!! They're brilliant hunters and do a great job keeping the mice and rats away. One of them likes to sleep on the horses backs, but only when they have rugs on! They hate the house cat, who has formed an alliance with the dogs, and he can only come down to the yard when the dogs are out, otherwise the stable cats chase him back up to the house!!
 
We rescued our yard cat and he's a sweetie and a fabulous mouser. Unfortunately he's just as good at slaughtering wrens, robins, swallow chicks........ When it's cold at night he often sleeps on the rugged backs of the neds in the barn!
 
The amount varies, but right now we have seven.

Usually in Spring time we get strays come visiting, or are dumped in our fields by the road (I have seen people do it...one person saw me watching and just threw a cat carrier out of the door and kept driving) Funny how most cats dumped are pregnant...I always have kittens advertised through Summer.

All my cats are silly friendly, two especially like to go walkabouts, one will happily sit on my shoulders whilst I am driving the quad.

I love having cats, before, I lived close to a busy road and had greyhounds, neither conducive to guaranteeing a long and happy life for a cat.
 
My yard has two gorgeous black cats, very friendly and thankfully have been neutered. Very heavy build on them. Used to be a black and white one as they were the same litter, haven't seen it in some time.

Does anyone have any shrews on their yard? A fellow livery about two years ago caught one of the cats playing with one.

Even though I have a cat I feel there is a lot to be said about too many cats per square kilometer.
 
Our stable cats and house cats have got mixed up now, currently most of the stable cats are living inside (wonder why!)


I love having them about and would rescue more but we have seven at the moment.

Yes, we have shrews. The cats only play with them and never eat them because apparently they taste terrible.
 
Had 3 feral cats from CPL. You couldnt even look at them without them darting off.

After about a year, one adopted me and follows me everywhere and likes to have cuddles. He even likes to come ragworting with me and to get the horse in.

The other two are a bit shy, but like the occasional bit of attention when they are hungry!

Having stable cats is a great way to reduce the numbers of rats and mice, rabbits and moles in a natural way without chemicals or traps. They are great company too.

Whats very amazing is that Bill my feral ginger friend was the most scared and distrusting of humans and I suspect had been beaten and is now the one who constantly demands my attention and cuddles.
 
Ours is a Ginger Tom called Tigger. He was feral too and terrified when first spotted on the yard he used to hide in the barn. Now he is in charge of the yard trots around after the people he knows and tells everyone he hasnt been fed for at least a year. He is a very chubby happy gentleman and that could be because the admin side of the yard is overrun with CPL people (in the nicest way of course).
 
We had one female stable cat and one visiting feral tom until recently. We still have them but have also aquired four more kitties that mysteriously appeared in our barn. They are a strange mix of one kitten (about 12 weeks old) another ginger tom a bit older and another two white and tabby that appear to be older again but not over a year. The small kitty has half a tail but we have no idea how that happened. We are sure there was another kitten but it was only seen once so we think it may have died
frown.gif
. They all sleep together and appear to be a family. I don't know where they came from but I think they have been dumped as they are too friendly to be feral. The small kitty is the only one that will not let us touch him so I think his half tail is as a result of somthing nasty involving humans and he just does'nt trust us yet.
 
Our yard cat is fab, I love her and she knows it and delays me every morning by a good few minutes by turning up for fuss and cuddles. She's an amazing hunter but also very soft with people. She sleeps on my horse's back! I have no idea how she gets up there, but she does. He doesn't mind. I do when it comes to turfing her off in the mornings, I feel so mean. But I put her on his warm rugs that I've just taken off and hung up and she seems to like that
smile.gif
 
There are two at my old yard - Black Puss and Ginger Puss! Both mostly hunt rabbits and rats for their supper and both are amazing hunters, very fat, and quite friendly too!
No cats up at my current yard as it's just a yard/fields and no house.
We have LOADS at work; my boss is a bit of a cat lady! The three we see the most of are her two gorgeous dark grey babies (don't know how old they are exactly but they were kittens not all that long ago!) who are fairly timid, and her most amazingly gorgeous and fluffy kitty Tasha. Tasha is always hanging about, distracting us, leaping on laps/shoulders/any warm spot available
grin.gif
Us staff joke between us that maybe "stroking the cats" should be in our job descriptions!
It certainly makes life more interesting to have cats about the yard... especially when the odd dead rat or remains of a rabbit turn up
crazy.gif
 
Top