Sunday, March 6, 2011

Jerry vs. Deer

I love my barn cat Jerry. 
He lived here before we moved here.  He let us move into the house, but he still owns the property.  He lets us use the property when he's not around.
He will not let us pet him, he keeps his distance from us.  He does allow us to feed him, though. 
He's not stupid!

Jerry eating canned food last night

Shadow kitty used to live outside with Jerry.  Jerry thought she was annoying.  She wanted to rub against him and be loved by him all the time.  She is the friendliest, most-cat-loving cat that ever was born.  She loves all cats, even when she was feral and hated humans.  She's slowly getting used to humans now.  Jerry had more important things to do than hang with Shadow, like hunt.  Shadow always gave away her hunting position when he talked her into hunting with him.  And then, after a long unbearably cold winter, Shadow moved into the humans' house and left Jerry.  She took up with that other cat who lived inside named Jack.  Jerry was ok with Shadow moving inside.  Now there was more time for hunting and prowling by himself, and doing other boy-cat things. 
Jerry has no plans on ever moving inside, although he's invited in all the time.  
Funny thing, Shadow has no plans on ever going back outside, although it was offered to her. 
Funny how everyone's different.   

Jerry had many choices.  He ate most of them 

Usually once a day Jerry comes to the back door for his food.  He gets dry food and canned food and warm milk on cold winter days.  He's the most spoiled feral cat I know.  When we're not home Jerry sits on a chair on the back porch and waits for his food to arrive.  He has gotten used to the guineas, he didn't like them when they first invaded his space.  Now he ignores them and eventually they get bored with him and leave.  They don't even squawk at him anymore.

What's that out in the gate?
Recently, after eating Jerry goes out and sits in the back yard in the gate entry to the back yard.  We assume there's a mouse or something that he's hunting out there.  He always waits till he eats, then sits out there until it gets dark.  He often lays down while he patiently hunts for hours.  That critter better watch out. 
Jerry is on duty!


Jerry, guardcat, protector of farm
Friday night Jerry was doing his hunting duty in the gate when I noticed a deer was in the backyard.  It wanted to walk through the gate and go into the woods, but Jerry was sitting there and wouldn't move.  The deer walked up near Jerry, then it finally noticed him.  It jumped straight up in the air, threw it's white tail straight up, and bounced all over the back yard.  After stomping his feet several times, the deer started walking back towards Jerry.  I held my breath!  Jerry stood his ground in the gateway.  The deer was not going to pass.  The deer got about 10 feet from Jerry, then gave in and bounced away back into the backyard.  Jerry won the deer fight.  The deer waited a distance away until Jerry left for the night, then he was allowed to leave.
 
Jerry 1, Deer 0

Today we saw a woodchuck for the first time this year!  He was in the backyard.  Goodmorning, Chucky!  We have lots of Chucky's.  Jerry loves playing with the woodchucks, at least he did the past couple years.  He hunts them for hours and tackles them.  They absolutely ignore him.  Even when he tackles them.  Hopefully Jerry will stop playing with the deer and will start playing with the Chucky's now that they have woken up from their hibernation this year.  They are more his size.  

Happy Sunday! 
   

18 comments:

IsobelleGoLightly said...

Jerry certainly has a very "wild kitty" look about him! Beautiful!

Gail said...

Cats are very entertaining.

Farm Girl said...

This is amazing what a cute story and I love Jerry. Such a pretty kitty. Can you get pictures of a wood chuck? I have never seen one of those. I have just read about them. Are they like a big gopher?

Ronna said...

Okay, so this is like my favourite post ever. I love this story and three cheers for Jerry! He looks like our Ballou, the cat I grew up with who hunted everything and brought home (live) garter snakes and once, half a rabbit. Hmmm..

Kritter Keeper at Farm Tails said...

you have got to be kidding! the ground hogs allow the cat to tackle them? please promise to get a video of this. you need to enter it in a contest so you can win a lot of money! jerry is very beautiful. my daddy cat was feral but i worked with him daily and now he is a little kitten inside a big fat male cat body. lol! the deer always nose around near the kitties and eventually they run off. chocolate snort is a mean doe and tried to stomp one of my kitties. all of the deer were in shock to see me yell at her, approach her directly (which she didn't back off for a long time) and stomp right back at her. i was prepared to throw the corn bucket at her any second should she try to do something stupid...i think she learned not to mess with my little sylvester anymore. :)

Chai Chai said...

Great story, you are very lucky Jerry decided to let you live on his land. The deer here behave more aggressively, they have been known to charge our dogs when they get in their way.

CaliforniaGrammy said...

You're a great story teller! What a fun post and thanks for introducing me to Jerry ... he's a cool cat. I can't imagine a deer being afraid of a cat, though. Jerry is king of the back yard! Go Jerry - I wonder if he knows how good he has it with the food service he gets from you... or does he just figure he deserves it.

Mary Ann said...

Your stories are so wonderful. I think the cat story is great, and I am so proud of my eggs, too, just as if I had laid them myself! Love your blog.

Mary Ann said...

I love this story about the farm cat... the HEAD farm cat! I can see him keeping track of everything going on.

Razzberry Corner said...

Isobelle - He had his mouth full of food when I took this picture! He was hungry and was gobbling his dinner before the raccoons arrived at the dinner table!

Gail - Yes, they are. All animals are!

Kim - Really? I will have to do a post on the woodchuck this summer. They are like a beaver with a short tail to me, that lives on land and doesn't swim. They dig holes everywhere and have 4 or 5 cutie-pie babies in the spring, and eat your garden and dig up flowers that have tasty bulbs beneath. Here's a post that I did with a pic of a woodchuck:
http://razzberrycorner.blogspot.com/2010/04/death-of-woodchuck.html

Ronna - Jerry used to bring us dead animals to our front porch when we first moved here. We were always getting dead birds and snakes. Randy said he also had a cat when he was a boy who brought home all sorts of dead animals to their house. I wonder what Ballou did with the other half of the rabbit?

KK - OK, I'll get a video of Jerry and the woodchucks! I think our cat Jack was stomped by a deer before we found him. He used to be an outside feral cat and was in very bad shape when we took him him. When we took him to his 1st vet appt the vet said he had broken ribs which healed over unevenly. And Jackie is so very afraid of deer. They are his biggest nightmare. When he sees a deer he freaks out in hysterics and runs, runs, runs in any direction. I can only imagine that he is so terrified of deer because he was hurt so badly by one.

Chai - Our deer are very shy. Poor critters. If we had a dog he would chase away all the deer and the other animals. We have often considered getting a dog.

CAGrammy - Yes, I think Jerry knows how good he has it. He doesn't come every day to eat, but mostly every day. One of the neighbors has trapped feral cats and taken them to a shelter. Jerry was caught several times, we asked him to please return him to us each time he ends up in a trap.

MaryAnn - Jerry rules the farm! He's my Jerry!

~Lynn

Danni said...

Aw, good boy, Jerry - every farm needs a good mouser, I've learned. He looks pretty grouchy in that top photo, though, doesn't he? This is surprisingly similar to our feral cat, Clyde. How are they simulataneously able to glare at us while gobbling down the food we've lovingly presented to them?
:-)

Terry said...

Jerry is a sweetie in his own way. I loved this story.

Knatolee said...

Jerry is super handsome. He looks like a little Lynx! And what a good job he does on the farm. That's some cat, scaring off a deer.

Knatolee said...

And the groundhog-tackling is amazing!

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Now this dear girl, was a great 'Jerry' story!!!

I just popped over from Miss Gail's place and am so glad I did!!!

God bless ya from the happy hills and hollers of the Missouri Ponderosa!!!

Genny said...

Have I ever told you? I LOVE Jerry and you for taking such good care of him. I also LOVE groundhogs. You have to get a video of Jerry playing with the groundhogs. I can't wait to see it!

John Going Gently said...

jerry looks as though he soesnt take shit from ANYONE!!!

Rick (Ratty) said...

I love this story about Jerry and the deer. I used to have a cat under similar circumstances. She was a female we just called Fang. She had a habit of bullying the neighborhood dogs. Even the bigger ones didn't mess with her.