Cat in the Hen House...

[ChickieChickieMama]

I went to let the ladies (and gents) out into the run this morning and from within I hear a very low drawn out "meooooow! Meeeeeeow!"



Heartbroken, I open the door and out runs my own housecat, who had been hiding in the corner (apparently all night!). Meanwhile, my six week old chicks were all strutting around the coop, happily playing in the pine shavings and ignoring my poor traumatized kitty!

So much for my tough streetcat rescue...I think we have the makings of a good barn cat!

(This was Toulouse with Delilah, one of the chicks when they were little...it seems our forced socializing worked!)

 

[Dawnclucks22]

I went to let the ladies (and gents) out into the run this morning and from within I hear a very low drawn out "meooooow! Meeeeeeow!"



Heartbroken, I open the door and out runs my own housecat, who had been hiding in the corner (apparently all night!). Meanwhile, my six week old chicks were all strutting around the coop, happily playing in the pine shavings and ignoring my poor traumatized kitty!

So much for my tough streetcat rescue...I think we have the makings of a good barn cat!

View attachment 1379100

(This was Toulouse with Delilah, one of the chicks when they were little...it seems our forced socializing worked!)

That picture... it’s so cute!! Your poor cat though!

 

[PirateGirl]

My "tough" outside cat wants to come back in the house every time he realizes he's all alone out there and I'm done with yardwork and the dogs have come inside as well... they don't always understand their duties of being ferocious outdoor hunters

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

That picture... it’s so cute!! Your poor cat though!

He's doing alright now....once he got out of the coop and run he made a dash for the house, but five minutes later he was back out at the coop begging me to let him back in! He's napping on the bench in the run now.

Man I wish I had footage I could watch of what happened in the coop through the night! He must have snuck in behind me when I went in last night to pull them out of the nesting box and put them on the perches.

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

We've got three cats - one of which actually came with this house when we moved here in December...it was living outside and the owners were feeding her out back but didn't let her in because they had three dogs. A week after we moved in she just waltzed inside one day and declared herself family. She was the one I was most worried about with the chicks but she's a true barncat cat and loves them.

Mitzi with Estelle, her favorite little snuggler.

 

[PirateGirl]

Haha. The way they bolt for the front door cracks me up every time. I went to get groceries the other day and my cat must have heard me start the car and came running home sooooo fast. He didn't want to be left alone

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

My guy thinks he's tough but he is from Northern California after all so he's pretty soft.

He was a city street cat from Oakland...and he was happy living in the city when we brought him home to San Jose...but when we moved out to the "country" hills thought he had died and gone to kitty heaven. Some nights even he refuses to come inside and sleeps out in the woodpile or in the side of a little hill above my garden. He's not too sure about the deer that walk right up to him to munch on the greens, but he loves to chase around all the little lizards...

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Ha! Thay picture is adorable! We have a mostly outdoor cat (male) and an indoor female. We would love the female to be outdoors but she won't venture more than 5 feet from the house.
Our outdoor cat will stalk our 12 week chicks, and run at them, but veer off at the last minute. If they are in their run, he will be braver and sit right outside the run and watch them. Once, he jumped in the coop, and started rolling in the sand, then realized the chicks were in there and hightailed it out.