OUT!

We let the kitties out. Lander said "FINALLY!"





Mercer hangs out on the windowsill, as we expected she would.

I was worried that they'd never seen horses before, and encountering Baasha might scare them away. It wouldn't be good if cats intended to be mousers are afraid of the barn. So over the last few days I'd been bringing Lander to the barn in his crate to meet Baasha.

Baasha said, "A kitty for ME!" and actually tried to open the box with his mouth. Baasha never messes with anything with his mouth so this was new. For the most part Baasha just stood with his nose on the cage door, breathing in and out slowly, enjoying the smell of his cat. For the first time since he arrived, Lander looked scared.





But eventually he was calm, and Baasha never did anything sudden or fast to frighten him.

I also hung out in the paddock with the cat in his cage a lot, hoping to make him comfortable with it. It was more like torture for him those days, being outside but not free. I told him it's like I feel when I see people riding horses when I'm out hiking.

But it worked out beautifully when we opened the window. He just wandered around our yard, stayed away from the street, and even walked underneath the horse! The horse tried to follow him and that scared him, but as soon as Baasha saw that the cat was nervous, he stopped and held still and then the cat came back. Baasha loves cats.

I was working in the manure box, turning and spreading old manure, and the cat delightedly ran back and forth across the lawn, even climbing up the walnut tree. He ran so much he would just drop to the ground exhausted, panting like a lion. Then he'd try to catch butterflies, eat some grass, race for cover, and lie down again. Outta shape housecat? Every so often he'd run straight to me, say "meow" and ask for attention, as if he was somewhat nervous and I could comfort him.

I think the best part was when Baasha and I went down to pasture together. That was day 2, and Lander was pretty comfortable with Baasha by then. In fact, Baasha was in the lead, the cat followed, and I came in last on the path down to the ponds. Then up into the pasture, I started cleaning up poop, and Lander chased the poop as I scattered it. He hid in the long grass and stalked the horse. He would run to the horse, stand next to him, tail up, and meow back at me. He'd run between Baasha and me, like we were safety to him down there. We explored the entire lower grazing strip by the stream, and I think the cat was in heaven.




What struck me was that as uncomfortable as Baasha is down by the ponds/stream, the cat was the opposite. The reason horses do not like low, secluded areas is that predators can hide. Our cat felt happiest in this area, the hills on either side hiding him, and the trees and bushes giving him cover. I wish I had a photo of him lying half hidden in the grass, panting like a wild animal.

Then we went fishing. A neighbor came over, commented that the cat is following us like a dog, and he fished 4 trout out of our ponds. I thought Lander would jump into the ponds, he was so interested in the water. He tried to "help" me clean up floating leaves from one pond, grabbing the dripping net in his mouth and paws.

He spent a few hours up in a tree as he discovered the neighbors have dogs. I thought he'd never come down but eventually the dogs went inside.

He sleeps a deep sleep at night lately.

Today it is raining (come on, lots of rain please) and he climbed up the elderberry tree over and over, despite how wet it was. Now he keeps coming back in the house, meowing at me as if he's complaining about the rain, and going back out there anyway.

Mercer, too chicken, follows him around sniffing him everytime he comes back in. She is considerably happier these days with his energies redirected.

Last night I watched him catch a vole and immediately bring it in the house. I yelled for my man to come and we didn't know what to do - he brought it in to play with it with Mercer! It was awful. I rescued it from him cuz he obviously wasn't gonna kill it anytime soon----Holy crap he just brought another one in----just now as I was typing this paragraph. Well it's time he learned. Before he even dropped it from his mouth I clapped my hands and said OUT! and chased him back outside. He has to learn they are for outside. Goodness, will he?