This is Pantheon (Don't ask, my son named him after some computer game hero) he is the demon spawn of my late Piglet and seems to be ready to move into her old spot. I took this picture a couple years ago when he was starting his roaming period and he used to love to climb all over the wood pile.
I got called into work today early but was home in time to take Pantheon out with me while I was getting the evening feeding chores done. He started hunting near the sheep pens and promptly brought me a rather large mouse in tribute to my greatness.
A good mouser cat around the place is worth his or her weight in gold in my opinion, especially one that hunts for the thrill of it and likes to show off his trophies. It has been my experience around here so far that this trait is far more common in the Female cats than the Males but maybe we just have lazy Males. That means that no matter how well fed he or she is you can still count on em keeping the rodents down. The part I haven't figured out yet though is how to get them to continue being good hunters well into middle and old age. The Queen used to be a damned fine mouser until about a year ago now all she does is sleep and eat.
Besides being a good mouser Pantheon also likes to hang out on my desk as I write or browse the computer. As a matter of fact he is laying by my left wrist right now. He is a bit larger than his Mother so he takes up more room than she did.
Anyway I may have lost my Piglet but at least I still have her offspring around. No one has tried to steal Pantheon though like they did his Mom. I had a long list of people who wanted to take my Piglet home with them and caught more than one trying to sneak off with her although I think they were all joking. No one could come to visit without ending up with Piglet in their arms but Pantheon isn't as excited about human contact until it's on his terms.
Oh ya. And don't try to shell beans around him either. He just steals em.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
yo bro - i looooove your cat posts and you know it! we have 3 strays - the supervisor, the idiot, and his brother - the other idiot! they wake jam every morning...one at a time of course...so that jam sleeps from about 11pm til about 4am...climbs back in bed until 4:30am....then awakened again at 5am....then back in bed until 5:30am and it just goes on until about 6 when he finally gets up. for some reason, i never hear them scream at the bottom of the bed???? your Piglet was awesome and so is little Pantheon. yer a great man bro! (and i never called you wiener once!)
ReplyDeletemuch love buddy! your friend,
kymber
I agree with kymber. Your good folk.
ReplyDeleteMy sister's cat caught mice until she was probably 14 years old (she lived to 17 or so; would have been longer, but the neighbor kid who came by the place while my folks were off on vacation was told 'feed the dog and take care of the cat... so he did) and for most of that, she was one of the most wildly obese cat's I've ever known. I never figured out how she did it. My running theory is that she would jump down from a height and stun them with the shockwave, then go pick them up at her leisure. At her largest, she was 37 lbs, IIRC.
ReplyDeleteCareful that kitty has the look of a supervisor. We have two cats left and a third that is wild and is seldom seen but I suspect that it catches more mice than the other two but I would just as soon it had a rabies shot.
ReplyDeleteAll hail The Mighty Piglet and Pantheon. May their claws never grow dull in the pursuit of rodents.
ReplyDeletePP,
ReplyDeleteI think Pantheon maybe in the process of training and molding you before he takes on the title his mom had.
Have a great day, and don't work to hard.
He looks like my Sam! I secretly think the females make better hunters than males. At least they seem more likely to bring their prey home as gifts and offerings. Of course, my Katy is an exception to that. Her best shot is bugs.
ReplyDeleteOur main outdoor hunting cat, the gray one not the black one, died of heart problems recently. She was more of a rabbit hunter, and boy did she get a lot of baby rabbits, than a mouser. The little black cat gets the mice that sneak into our garage.
ReplyDeleteOur new cat is a completely silly 9 month old Tom that looks just like Tom in coloration, and very close in markings. He has shown a willingness to chase, but not much in the way of skills yet.