Isaac Almost Killed Another SonToday...Deacon Has Recovered, and..... (update 11/30)

[speckledhen]

I have no idea since I'm not a cat person. Had them when I was a kid, but not as an adult, so it's been probably 40 years since I was around cats. I just call him an orange tabby. He's darker than buff I think, but again, I don't know much about cat color varieties. He's on my park bench on the deck sleeping right now. Has a typical big tomcat head, seems fairly young, but at least a year, I'd guess.

He keeps shaking his head so I'm guessing ear mites. Needs a rabies shot, flea treatment (though haven't seen any) and collar, ear mite treatment and then, the biggie, neutering. I can't do that unless I'm sure he's sticking around, though.

 

[lularat]

He's what I call a yellow tabby and most of the yellow tabbies are very sweet cats.

 

[speckledhen]

The cat slept on the big rocker with the thick chair pad last night, ate some of the dry cat food this morning and then he went off on some mission. Those mice who leave stuff all over my deck at night won't be partying with this guy around, ha! Jury's still out whether he'll actually stay permanently or not, but I sort of hope so. He's a good boy.

Ladyhawk has two cats who just showed up and one from a litter they found abandoned on some farm tractor nearby. One is a long haired female. The owner, a neighbor not far away, left their property for an extended time and just left the poor cat with a torn open large bag of cat food for that poor thing. Of course, the coons ate the food. She took up residence in LH's barn and never left. Eventually, she was vetted and had been her mouser for quite awhile when some man showed up and said, "That's my wife's cat". You can imagine LH's answer to him. Then, there were two or three female kittens someone put on a farm tractor, too young to be weaned; LH raised them up, kept one, found homes for the others. She is an indoor cat, I think. Then, a wild kitten appeared around the barn this year, a talented mouse killer. Took ages before he'd let her touch him, but eventually, he was neutered. He goes into the coops with her every morning and gets any mice that make it in there. She never set out to get a cat and now has three. Even Lancelot, her blue Orp rooster for those who don't know, likes the male cat, Theo, and Lancelot has killed stray cats in the past.

So far, my chickens only see a predator when this cat walks through the yard, but he shows no interest in them whatsoever, even when Deacon was running from him, cackling and freaking out, he only had eyes for me and gave Deacon a wide berth.


ETA: DH wants to take him to the Humane Society, but I fear they are already full-up on cat inventory. We'll see. My former realtor here started it in the area so I asked her and I guess I have to see if they have room for this sweet guy. I think if he was skittish and just was hanging around, it would be no trouble, but he asks to come inside and DH feels guilty leaving him out, feels he'd have to go the full gamut of taking care of him, which of course, we would do. No animal other than chickens would be here without proper rabies vaccination or pest control.


He's found his favorite spot on the deck.






ETA, again:

They are full up, but they will pay for neutering him if he stays around. That's pretty cool, though I'd certainly make a donation for that. Bought him a plush little oval pet bed and put it in a pet carrier on top of that glass table in the photo above. He went right in and curled up so he'll be out of the wind tonight--it's really howling out there. I heard from a down the hill neighbor that it's not their cat, either. I got some flea powder and ear mite drops and will use those on him tomorrow. If I find him another home, the pet bed can go to Ladyhawk's three cats.

This one, very plush, should be warm in the carrier:

 

[speckledhen]

Deacon's reaction to the cat has been interesting. He is obviously upset by its presence and quite afraid of it, but he follows it at a safe distance, on high alert, cackling to warn everyone that there is danger present. If the cat walks toward him, he holds his ground as long as he dares, then takes off at high speed, making a ton of noise. I find it interesting that he follows an animal he is obviously afraid of, but I would guess that is the rooster in him, looking out for the flock. I haven't let any flocks out to free range since the cat got here. May do that tomorrow and see how Rex and his hens do on range with a cat among them.

 

[speckledhen]

Deacon has completely healed. I don't think his comb points will ever be completely straight up again, they still curve over at the tips, but he is back to fighting at the fence with Atlas and poor little bantam Cochin, Xander. He has been free ranging while his big brother Rex is out and Rex at times becomes relentless in chasing him. Deacon acts the same as always around Rex, very intimidated.

With success in him ranging around his brother's flock, I figured I could allow him to do the same when Isaac's small group is out. After all, Isaac cannot run nearly as fast as Rex can, having terrible arthritis and being an advanced age, so I was thinking Deacon could easily avoid his father. And he could. Yesterday was fine. Today wasn't.

When Isaac came out of the pen and walked up the hill leading his hens, Deacon stood there not retreating as normal. They both did the "picking at things on the ground" preliminary thing that roosters do, walking toward each other slowly, sort of nonchalantly, but I've seen it too many times to walk away and leave them there. Suddenly, Deacon attacked Isaac! WTH? Deacon grew a pair?

They fought for less than 10 seconds as I tried to grab Deacon away. Neither was hurt, but it is apparent that Deacon has realized that his father is not the rooster he used to be, now sees his weaknesses, the stilted gait, his lack of stamina/wind, etc. Probably isn't too forgiving of that last attack from dear old dad that put him in a hospital cage, either.

I threw Deacon into a cage and checked Isaac out, who seemed okay, other than his color had turned quite dark for about 10 minutes following the fight. I have no doubt that Isaac would have lost unless he could have placed one of his thick spurs in a strategic location in his son because he just doesn't have the heart/lung power anymore to fight a determined year old male. So, I definitely have to keep them separated, but not to protect Deacon.

 

[speckledhen]

Deacon today, looking and feeling good. His two comb points still curl a bit at the top, but he's fully recovered from his injury and as I said in the post above, decided he's up to challenging his dad. On the other hand, he's scared to death of brother, Rex, still. Good thing since I bet Rex would kill him if they actually faced off.

This pic below shows Deacon's lone spur.

 

[speckledhen]

I mentioned this on another thread, but since this is dedicated to Deacon's woes, I think it should be here as well. Yesterday, for the first time, a real knock-down, drag-out fight broke out between Deacon and his brother, Rex. I've always let Deacon free range with Rex's group because Deacon stays away from Rex and even when Rex goes after him, usually, Deacon is fast enough to avoid more than fleeting contact between the two brothers. Before today, Deacon has run from Rex every single time he's been chased by big brother, but not this time. He refused to back down. Feet were flying. I had been pitchforking huge piles of leaves from the bottom of Rex's pen over the fence into another section so I was already out of breath myself when I headed back up the hill and caught a glimpse of the battle happening behind the bantam coop. I ran yelling, of course, they paid me no mind. Tried to grab one, but dang those two, they were avoiding me while pounding each other.

Deacon would fall and get back up and go at it again. I had to yell for DH to help me separate them because they were as intent on keeping me from stopping them as they were intent on beating each other up. He didn't hear me, being in the house, so I had to leave them fighting to run up to the house to get his attention. DH's hearing isn't what it used to be and even the baby monitor in the main coop didn't transmit my very loud and desperate yells to him from the receiver in our bedroom. I do think everyone in the local area heard me. Another issue, but anyway...

In the end, Deacon had a couple of wounds, but Rex didn't. In fact, though Deacon was holding his own with Rex, Rex wasn't even breathing hard nor was he bleeding when we got them apart. All the blood on him belonged to Deacon. Deacon is light on his feet, very agile, whereas Rex is stocky, but more experienced than Deacon. Not sure what would have happened in the end if I had not been out there to stop them. I looked Deacon over good after we put Rex back into his own pen. Deacon received no punctures from Rex's spurs, just a wattle wound and his comb seemed to be slighly unseated from the base at the back so a bit of blood coming from there, but not too much. All in all, I think Deacon got off light. Rex didnt even break a sweat, LOL.

Now that Deacon has challenged both Isaac and Rex, I'm not about to allow my up and coming breeding BR cockerel, Atlas,to get face to face with him and be hurt. He is much, much larger than Deacon, being Rex's son and Isaac's grandson, but Atlas still has "pencil eraser" size spurs, so we need to be vigilant about gates and fences being secure.


ETA: I would edit the title to mention the date of this update, however, the limit to allow me to do that has expired and I can't. I realize the need for it, for folks who abuse the system, but I like to update my titles as I change information (walks off pouting).

 

[speckledhen]

Deacon has his three hens and I added two more that weren't getting along well in the main coop. He is still sweet Deacon and today, he did one of his old tricks looking for attention when DH was bent over trying to extricate one of the newbies from some fencing she trapped herself in trying to get away from the resident wenches.

Deacon, the goober.

 

[drumstick diva]

Deacon is an adorable goober