At out home we take pride in small things, getting the fire going with only one match, finding a new brown egg, green wheat poking up threw the straw, and this morning watching Trouble (our newest kitten) catch a mouse. In the first few weeks that we had Trouble with us our other two cat would bring Trouble field mice and drop them in front of her, so that she could learn to catch them. As time went on Trouble would "assist" the other cats in catching mice, after they where caught by the older cats she would be allowed to play with them (to death). Now Trouble has firmly moved into big girl cat land, she catches and "plays with" her own mice (and growls at the other cats when they get close to her new toy).
Some people may find it odd that we don't mind when our cats catch and kill mice or birds. Part of our reasoning is that while our cats are members of our family they are also a form of employee. The cats have a job to do just like the rest of our animals, the goats are to eat weeds and give milk, the pigs are to turn the ground and provide meat, the chickens are to eat bugs and provide eggs and meat, and so on. Part of the cats job (in addition to keeping peoples feet warm on cold nights) is to keep down the population of field mice. When we first moved into our home we had a problem with mice getting in the house and eating food from our cabinets. Within a few weeks Calvin (our black cat) had discovered that from time to time when he opened the flour cabinet there would be a mouse in it (much to his joy). And soon he would check the flour cabinet (AKA mouse dispensary) several times a day to see if it had been "restocked". With in a month or two, no more mouse problem. So when I see Trouble working hard to pull her own weight around the farm I take a little pride that our newest member of the family has what it takes to keep herself welcome on our little homestead.
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