I currently have white racing pigeons and cats don’t mix, I never liked cats from the time I was about 12 and one would get in my coop and kill several birds, but, my heart changed when on a spur of the moment I decided to catch a multi-generation wild barn cat descendent from a litter of kittens in the top of a barn. They were very young but still hard to catch as they ran and ducked behind piles of junk and after some time I couldn’t catch the one I was trying for but had an opportunity for another one and took it. That little kitten barely had teeth yet had me dripping blood from my hands but I was able to hold on to him.
I took him home to find out he didn’t know how to eat solid food and had to go buy a bottle and kitten milk from the pet store. He would down those bottles and quickly become my buddy. He would sit abck in a recliner like a human with his gut hanging out after a big meal. I began spoiling him and he would eat an extra-large can of tuna fish or big pieces of chicken in no time flat.
He grew big and had no fear. He was the tallest cat and had the biggest most muscular head and jaw on a cat I’d ever seen. He was silvery grey, had a short coat, four white boots and very muscular all over. His name was Spot because he had a round white spot on his chest. He would wrestle with this Shepard mix I had and take him down and hold him there. Those two wrestled and hung out together all the time. I wasn’t even worried about the coyotes getting him because I didn’t think he would be worth their trouble if he got serious.
When he was only about 10 months old I began to find dead cats on my property and wondered what the heck was going on. Then one day I saw a cat jump over the fence into my yard and Spot immediately jumped him and by the time I got up to them the invader was dead, so that answered that, he had established his territorial domain and this explained his roots and why he so powerfully strong.
I always thought of cats hiding when strangers came to a home but when this guy saw some people he didn’t like, like my MIL, would come into the house he would walk up to them growling and very intimidatingly back them back out the door. I had to get the cat and keep him in check when someone came to the door. He was very affectionate with me though.
One day, he came into the shop where I was working and I noticed he was acting strange and kind of weak but I was very busy at the time. About 20 minutes later I decided to check on him but couldn’t find him. It was then that I discovered my dog, his buddy, laying down swollen from a snake bite and then saw the snake, a big Green Mojave Rattlesnake. I called and looked all over for Spot but couldn’t find him. A couple days later my neighbor came over and told me she had found him dead in the bottom of a big hole on her property.
Its been about 20 years and I’ve never had another cat of my own, He would be a tough act to follow and now that I have my birds not a good idea.
