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Go Sweets

February 6th, 2019

Sweets, our little feral garage cat of many years, is a great cat (we also call her Sneets after a niece called her that once). She’s a smart little cat, spending her nights out hunting rodents. Yesterday, I went up to the garage to give her some food and found an ermine she had killed.

A few weeks ago, one of you was asking about her. She’s still around and doing quite well. If you haven’t been reading here long, this little black cat has an amazing story, you can read about her series of unfortunate events here.

If you’ve never heard of an ermine, you’re not alone. They’re a weasel, a small weasel, but very fierce. They can get into a chicken coop and kill every bird (including turkeys and geese) in one night. You can imagine how happy I was to see this one dead. Good farm cats are really worth their weight in gold, if this ermine had gotten into our chicken coop we would have lost hundreds of dollars in chickens, not to mention all the lost eggs in future months. Even though Sweets is getting older (she’s 9 now) she’s still a mighty hunter, especially considering she’s tiny only weighs a few pounds herself.

8 Comments to “Go Sweets”
  1. Jodiana on February 6, 2019 at 10:17 am

    I’m glad she is still going strong! Such a good hunter. I have a Doxie that is a mouse/mole exterminator. It’s nice to not have those critters in the house. :)

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  2. Joy on February 6, 2019 at 10:22 am

    We too have wild kitties here in the farm. 14 or so! We have a favorite, her name is fluff! She is colored like a Siamese. Great hunters here on the farm with lists of mice in the sheds. Our daughter and son-in-law store their camper here in the winter and have never had a mouse in it! Love our kitties! And healthy kitty is a good hunter!

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  3. Lorna on February 6, 2019 at 1:18 pm

    Your little Sweets looks just like our Kitty Chat (I had to do a double-take!) Kitty was once a mighty hunter, but now has epilepsy; fortunately, we have a young cat named Bob who has taken over her duties and is proving to be a mighty hunter as well (his brother, not so much!) Kitty is enjoying her retirement–spending much time sleeping in sunbeams :)
    We wish your Sweets many more good years.

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  4. Bettina on February 7, 2019 at 2:47 pm

    I would skin the ermine and prepare the fur. It is nice and in previous centuries for a time was only allowed to be worn by royalty. It could always end up a cat toy!

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  5. David on February 9, 2019 at 1:01 pm

    Unacceptable! They also kill birds….why is killing an ermine OK….a crop pest? I don’t think so…..an outdoor cat is an introduced specie….just immoral!

    Reply to David's comment

    • Susy on February 10, 2019 at 11:24 am

      They actually kill chickens, so I’m happy to have the cats keep them away from my coops, as losing chickens is a significant monetary loss. The garage cat hunts under the chicken coop, thus this is where she caught the ermine. Since we keep the foxes away from the birds with electric fences, there are no natural predators to kill the ermine and weasels.

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  6. David on February 9, 2019 at 1:18 pm

    Was my comment deleted?

    Reply to David's comment

    • Susy on February 10, 2019 at 11:21 am

      No, comments aren’t automatically approved to reduce spam.

      Reply to Susy's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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