I've mentioned Big Ben on the blog before. He does not belong to us but to a neighbor down the road. this past week or so Big Ben has been hanging around the farm watching us garden, walking through the garden beds once I've finished planting them, getting his undivided affection, and even rolling around in the garden beds on newly planted cucumbers. Recently we've noticed that he had injured his back leg. The sore on that leg looks as though a small dog or other smallish animal had grabbed his leg. It's healing nicely though and it doesn't seem to slow him down one bit. I seem to have this feeling though that he is staying under our house pretty much day and night as he feels safe there. With the last couple days being cold I'm pretty sure he stayed at his house. We have come to love Big Ben and I do worry about him daily. I've also learned that Big Ben is very self sufficient for a cat. I always feel bad when I forget to bring him some food. However, I kind of stopped feeling bad since he has proven to be a very skilled hunter, even for a cat.
We had gone out to the farm last weekend to do some gardening and while walking to the garden beds I noticed a very dead half eaten mouse in my path. I immediately knew it had been Big Ben. I didn't think too much of it even though I felt bad for the mouse. Later that day big Ben made his usual appearance and when he tired of his affections and got a little hungry he went off and caught a sparrow to eat. This didn't sit well with me as I feed birds and put up nest boxes for them as well.
The next day we go back out to the farm and as soon as I pulled up I could tell Big Ben had caught something. I get out and walk over to him and see that he had caught yet another medium sized mouse. He dropped the mouse and it was then I realized he hadn't yet killed it, but had only severely wounded it. Before I could walk away he grabbed the mouse again and this time finished it off right as Sky had walked up. I felt bad for that mouse too but I realized that Big Ben was doing us a service by keeping them out of the house.
As sky and I walked away to begin gardening we looked back at Big Ben just in time to see him throw his prized kill high up into the air and leap after it to catch it. In some weird way it was almost comical to watch as the now dead mouse seemed to be attached to an unseen string being pulled up by an unseen hand.
Like I said before we really do love Big Ben. I may not agree with him hunting birds, which I've only caught him doing once, but he's more than welcome to all the mice he wants. Don't get me wrong I actually love mice, but I don't love mice in my house,being we've had a mouse problem before and these two mice Big Ben has caught seemed to be headed toward the house I don't mind one little bit.
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