Injured Wildlife

Anyone who knows me knows I have a deep appreciation for wildlife. I feed the birds, I step over most insects, I allow non-poisonous creatures on my land to live, and I try to protect and save any creatures that are in trouble.

Which leads me to one of my biggest peaves. Outdoor cats. They are not of the natural world and can cause needless devastation to local wildlife. They hunt and kill not only rodents, but also endangered small animals and song birds. Oftentimes they hunt just for sport. I don't like free-roaming outdoor cats.

But we somehow ended up with TWO outdoor cats. My daughter adores these two kitties and I have to admit they are both very sweet. I have no idea where they came from, but they don't seem to be leaving soon. I could call animal control to take them away, but my daughter would be devastated and it would seem a little lonelier outside.

I tried to combat the problem by keeping one of the cats, who seemed to be the big hunter, in a cage in the barn for a week, at least until most of the baby birds in all the nests around here fledged. It did seem to help a little, but the massacres have resumed again. Feeding these two kitties twice a day doesn't seem to matter. They hunt for sport and leave the dead bodies for us to find around the yard.

The needless carnage breaks my heart and frustrates me. I can't feed the birds anymore because I'd be providing a bird buffet for these outdoor cats. And I'm so sad when I find injured and dead animals laying around.
I'm not sure what can be done to stop the murdering, except get rid of the cats. Any ideas anyone?
Here are the two kitties: Jones and Mac. We think they are brothers.
Jones looks a little devious in this photo, doesn't he?
This is some of their handywork. Climbing into nests and pulling out baby birds. We tried to save this one by climbing the tree and replacing it, but we found it the next day, on the ground, below the nest. Another casualty.
A dead lizard found on our sidewalk. I like lizards and they eat insects. I hate to see them killed or injured.
It's obvious what happened here. At least they ate the bird this time.
The next two photos are very graphic, but also very interesting. If you can't handle dissection photos, you may want to scroll down and past these photos quickly.


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This is a sad situation. The cats killed a Mama lizard. Notice the eggs inside of her?

And what a waste. They weren't hungry. They only killed because they could.



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This is a little bird that my daughter told me about. Mac the cat had it pinned down and I ran outside hoping to make a difference. The cat's teeth or claws had stabbed this poor bird in the chest. There was a lot of blood.
I held pressure on the wound until the bleeding slowed, and then I placed her inside a dark quiet box. I checked on her a few times throughout the day and she seemed to be doing better.
Unfortunately, she didn't survive the night. I believe she probably had internal bleeding, had bled too much or had suffered from shock. It broke my heart to find her lifeless body the next morning. This is the last photo I took of this sweet bird alive.
I feel guilt that I can't protect these animals from these cats. I feel sorry that I can't save them when they have been attacked.
This little guy gave up his tail to the cats, but survived.
He comes to me when I sit outside, and he lays in the sun between my feet. When the cats come, I shoo them away. At least I've made a tiny difference in this fellow's life.

Thirsty Jones and Photos are Back!

I admit I'm a tightwad.
But I don't consider blogging a money-making venture, so I didn't want to spend any money doing it. Except that after more than a week without being able to load actual photos into each post, because I had exceeded the Picassa Photo Album limit, which happens to be 1 GB (approx 4,000 photos) it seems we've had enough.
I still find it hard to believe that in 2 years I actually uploaded 4,000 photos to my blog. I can hardly imagine, even though I love taking photos, that I even took that many. Wheweee!

RanchMan John, who is an avid reader of Laughing Orca Ranch, said he cannot stand the 'annoying slide-shows' and wants the photos back. So he decided that it was imperative that he pay the $20.00 to Google for more photo space, 10GB to be exact.

So, Laughing Orca Ranch is back to normal again! haha (Thanks honey!)

And so to start off the photo jamboree, I have some photos of our barn cat, Jones, who just can't seem to make up his mind which water in two buckets tastes better.

Mmmmmmm. This one is pretty fresh and fairly clean.

With a taste of green hay. Slightly astringent.
I think I shall give the other bucket of water a try.

Hmmmmm. Very similar but with the background flavor of llama lips.

I don't think I like the taste of llama. Let's go back to the first bucket, shall we.

Aaaahhh, that's better. But can cats get drunk from drinking too much barn water? Or maybe I just have to pee......where's a litter box when you need one?

Latte, Barn Girl, and Jones

As usual we spend alot of time up in the barn with our animals. I like that they all feel so comfortable with us that they don't run from us when we come near, that they will allow us to pet them, handle their feet, eat from our hands, and even fall asleep beside us.

One really neat thing that I've come to notice is that our llamas won't stand up from a kush if we walk by them anymore. That's a big sign of trust, for sure.
And Cataleya will know allow me to rub her belly and legs, and even handle her feet.
She will allow me to put her pack on and then lead her, with it on, all around the neighborhood and beside the road, too.
Catlinite, though he is allowing us to rub his neck and cheeks and stay still to be haltered, is still a challenge. But I thoroughly enjoy being around and handling our llamas as much as I can.

Our dairy goat, the mini-mancha, named Latte is settling in pretty good. She doesn't like the angoras, who tend to be bossy and head butt for no reason...just because they can. We've moved the angoras to the other pen and all the other woolies seem happier now. sigh.
Latte is kind of a pain during the day because she can't figure out how to follow the herd of other goats, sheep and llamas. So she stands there and bleats endlessly in front of the pen. She's even lost her voice on several occasions and sounds like a dying duck. I'm sure our neighbors just love that.

For the first few days after she arrived we spent alot of time with her holding, petting, handling and walking her on the leash. It's easier having a female goat in the house because they can wear diapers. A male goat's odd anatomy makes that option impossible.

Latte is doing well on the leash and is alot like Moon Pie in that she likes to fall asleep on our laps. She follows us around like a dog and enjoys being petted. I'd say she came around really quickly, considering she wasn't handled much, if at all, before we bought her.
We are also thinking about showing her in the Dairy Goat division at the NM State Fair. And if we can get our sweet Moon Pie to lose some weight (yes, I'm ashamed to admit it, but he's fat and spoiled) we want to show him in the wether class at the SouthWest Nigerian Goat Show next month.

On another note, Jones, the cat, has become more of a barn cat now. He capture mice up there and loves to take naps in the hay and with the other woolies. He cracked us up the other evening when he stroked himself all over Catlinite, while Catlinite was laying down. He really wanted to crawl up beside that big wooly llama boy and go to sleep, but Catlinite didn't like that idea at all. He warned Jones several times with spitting sounds and neck stretches, but finally gave up with the persistant Jones, and stood up and walked away. Thankfully Catlinite is usually all 'bark, but no bite', and never spit at his people or other animals in our barn. He will spit at Cataleya though. She sometimes deserves it, too.

Click on this link below if you'd like to see some photos of:
Latte, Barn Girl and Jones

Jones

"Indiana Jones", "Mr. Jones", "Indi", "Jonesy", and just plain old "Jones". This handsome fella, who just one day showed up on our ranch, has integrated himself thoroughly into our lives. He likes everyone and everyone likes him. He's patient, tolerant and affectionate. He lets our big puppy chew on his ears and tail and he doesn't mind being picked up and carried all over the place. Or taken for rides in the wagon. He's a mouse catcher, lizard snatcher (we rescue them if we can), lap warmer, leg cuddler, and buddy to my 3 kids. Wherever we go around the ranch, he's running beside trying to keep up. The horse and llamas like his relaxed and friendly demeanor and all the critters seem to like having him up in the barn, too.

Yep. He's in our lives for as long as he wants. He always has the freedom to go back to wherever he came or to move on to wherever he wants to go. He's an outdoor cat. Though he'd be indoors if it was up to him. But we already have two indoor kitties, one, my handsome Oreo, who is quite the territorial male and I won't ask him to share his home again. It was hard enough when we brought home our little female kitty last summer. The two of them have finally worked out the living arrangements but are far from friends.

If Jones did come inside to live, I'd see him being beat up by my Oreo. Jones just wants to be friends with everyone. I don't think he has a mean bone in his body. So, Mr. Jones will be an outside cat and we just pray that he remains savvy enough to avoid any stray dog, coyote, owl and eagle attacks. We'd miss him terribly if he wasn't around.

Pepper, Rain, Bruises and Fiber

Weird blog title, I know. But I've got such a modge podge of photos and experiences to add in this post that not one title fits. So.....

Both Jackson and I, me upstairs, and he downstairs were worried what we might find upon walking out to the pasture after seeing this sight. The night before Pepper had a tummy ache and even refused food, which is very unlike him. Thankfully, we realized that Pepper was just cuddled up with the lambs, Svetlana and Blanca, fast asleep.
We experienced some very heavy rain a couple days ago. Much needed here, but we were worried about Baby Doll, as she has never wanted to stay in the barn with the llamas, goats and sheep. John decided to try a new tactic by just keeping the barn gate open and giving Baby Doll free reign of the entire 2 acres of pasture, while inviting her to come in and eat the hay left out for her inside the dry, cozy barn. It worked!
It got to the point that John was able to leave the barn without Baby Doll leaving with him. She would remain inside munching happily on her hay. And as the rain drummed down harder, she stayed in the barn, only leaving when the rain stopped or slowed down.
By allowing Baby Doll to decide to go in and stay inside the barn on her own, we finally were able to get her to actually enjoy being in there. Now we are finding that whenever we are in the barn, she wants to come in and join us. She actually seems annoyed that the angora goats are back inside HER space! hehe
We were all so excited to see Baby Doll willingly go in and out of the barn while tolerating the llamas, goats and sheep.

For a few weeks now, my neighbor friend has been trying hard to get her beautiful Arabian, Annie into the trailer, so that she can be taken up to be bred in Colorado. Annie has only been in a trailer one time. And she's stubborn, smart and confused about the entire trailering experience. The other day I went over to lend a hand and we spent several hours, unsuccessfully working at getting Annie just to take one step up on her own into the trailer. We started off using her trailer and then brought over mine, which has a ramp, instead of a step-up. But we didn't make much headway, except in creating a few bruises.
My frustrated and tired neighbor friend and her even more exhausted horse.

Got up to the barn pretty late. Usually Jones, our new barn cat that just showed up one day on the ranch, enjoys coming with us, too. The Angoras like to give Jones a hard time and give him a few head butts. Jones seems to think they are just petting him or loving on him. He ends up rolling on his back and purring. Silly boy! This is Lily giving Jones a hard time.
Jenna loves to spend as much time as she can in the barn with the animals, too. She enjoys hand-feeding the goats and sheep during feeding time. They all seem to like having her around, too. Here she is feeding Cloud, our angora wether.
The other evening, when I had left my camera back at the house, Jones was up in the barn with me and found, what I thought was a mouse. It screamed very loudly when he caught it. But when I got a look I realized that he had caught a baby rabbit! I was able to rescue the baby rabbit and even held it for a few minutes until it's poor heart stopped racing. And then I released it, where it ran back under the hay pallets in our barn. Usually, though, Jones only hunts and captures mice. He's a very good hunter and he seems to capture and eat at least a mouse or two per day. We are working in training him to be a full-time barn cat, instead of hanging out down at the house most of the day and night.
It seems that the rain has another benefit, too. The angora goats' wool looks and feels so much silkier now with a lot of gorgeous curl. I can't wait until fall when we can shear them and I can start working with their fiber. Isn't Lily beautiful?

Crazy Critter Lady

Yep! That's me. The Crazy Critter Lady. When you find yourself sitting outside, still in your jammies, drinking tea with a goat and a cat on your lap....you have truly arrived! hehe

Of course, that also covers those of you who frequently find chickens, pigs, lambs, etc, etc on your laps, too. But wearing jammies is a requirement. hehe
(ps...My son took a bunch of photos of me and the critters, but I didn't want to scare anyone with my wild hair and naked, half-awake face, so cropping was a necessity. ack!)

Moon Pie's Adventures

I've been super busy the past week. Even though we had a little snow flurry one day and the winds are still blowing and gusting up to 40 mph, the temps are pretty nice during the day most of the time, so I'm spending most of my time outside with the animals and kids and doing chores around the ranch.

So, I thought I'd post a montage of one of our special ranch critters: Moon Pie, and how he spends his days here on the ranch.


Moon Pie still spends his nights here in the house in a large rabbit cage. First thing in the morning he calls out for his bottle of milk. After a vigorous breakfast, he does a few 'laps' on his Stairmaster. Up he goes!
And down he goes!
He doesn't just hop down the stairs either. He does hand (or is that hoof?) stands and adds in a few twists and flips, too. He is such a great start to our day.
Moon Pie is curious about everything and likes everyone. There isn't a critter around that he won't try to make friends with, including our cats and guinea pigs.
And then it's time for more jumping!
Boing! It's a Moon Jump!
Jackson is a serious animal lover and takes good care of the critters around here. This is Javalina our Manx cat and Coconut, our Abysinnian guinea pig.

Then were off to explore and play outside. Jones, our newest critter around here, is already quite fond of Moon Pie and immediately upon meeting him, just fell in love. Moon Pie enjoys Jones, too.
First thing they do is greet each other with a head rub.
And each time they see each other, they are back to those head rubs. Jones also likes to rub his body all over Moon Pie, which Moon doesn't mind at all.
Sometimes, Moon Pie gets really playful and does his little dance before he gives a head rub. Some may think that he is actually head butting, but he doesn't hit hard when he makes contact. He really is just rubbing heads. He does the same to my legs in the morning and evening while he impatiently waits for me to warm up his bottle. It feels really good, too, like a massage! hehe
Jenna is also a serious animal lover and is very fond of Moon Pie and Jones. A three way snuggle is a beautiful thing.

Welcome Jones!

Isn't he gorgeous?
About a week ago, a handsome striped cat showed up on our property. We'd see him lurking around at the edges of the perimeter of our house. I caught him trying to hunt the birds at my feeders, and I shooshed him away. He didn't run away, though, just sadly mewed. And for the past several days, we've been feeding him and giving him lots of attention. He was mostly skin and bones and very hungry, but he is such a sweet, loving cat and doesn't mind the kids picking him up or my 5 yr old daughter holding him like a baby.
Unfortunately he has already tried to kill and eat a lizard, but with our intervention and rescue, the poor lizard escaped with only the loss of it's tail.
He's also been lingering over our koi pond, too, but I'm hoping it's just because he's thirsty. I keep hoping that with a constant supply of food, his hunting instincts will lessen a bit. I've never had outdoor cats, only indoor, so I have no idea, but I don't want to give up my bird feeder watching and also don't want to supply a free birdie buffet for our new cat either.

The kids decided to name him Indiana Jones. I thought 'Indie' would be a good nickname, but the kids chose 'Jones' instead.
This kitty seems to like our goat, Moon Pie, too. In fact they both really like each other and are usually laying down together or rubbing heads.