November mouse hunting

For a while Daisy hasn't brought any mice back to the house.  She is still hunting.  I saw her roaming around the neighbor's house a few days ago and this morning I saw her in the hayfield hunting.

Then around noon I walked out in the pasture to the irrigation shed to do some measurements for my next project. Daisy walked with me.  On the way I left some apples for the cattle.  Daisy waited a safe distance while I gave the apples then followed me to the shed.

While I checked the shed over, and after Daisy was done inspecting the shed, she went hunting for mice.

Yup, she caught a mouse.  Number 69 for the year (that I know of - the number is probably much higher)  In the video below you'll see she didn't get to play with it much as it appears to have died quickly.

Daisy likes to do somersaults around me.  The photo below catches her in mid somersault.

 

Here is a short video of Daisy hunting when I was at the irrigation shed.

http://youtu.be/HvK1KIhgePA 

Bath

I finally tried the skunk cleaning mixture on Daisy this afternoon.  The past few days she has spent most of the day outside and I didn't get a chance to wash her.

The formula:

One quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (or white vinegar)

1/4 cup baking soda

One teaspoon liquid soap

Apply and rinse off with water.

I didn't have white vinegar so I used apple vinegar instead.

Daisy did quite well.  She stood patiently as I rubbed the mixture on her neck, under her chin and on her shoulders.  She wasn't thrilled at what I was doing.  As time went on she was getting unhappy but stood while I washed her fur.  I was surprised at how patient she was with me.

Then she started to do a low moan to signal her displeasure and then she looked at me with sad eyes.

Poor Daisy.

After I was done putting the mixture on her, and since I wouldn't let her go outside, Daisy went down to the basement and laid on the sleeping bag down there.  After a short time I went down and washed and rubbed the mixture off her then dried her off somewhat.  She just laid there looking sad at me.

The sooner one washes the skunk odor off, the better.  Unfortunately, a few days have passed before I could wash her, so while the odor is not as strong, I can still smell it on Daisy.


"Why are you being so mean to me?"

I just want to go outside so you'll stop washing me.

Poor Daisy.

Skunk

Daisy... Daisy... Daisy.

Last night, while Daisy was outside patrolling the grounds, I fell asleep at the computer while working on my blog. I woke up briefly to the smell of burnt coffee. Strange. I don't drink coffee.  Before falling back to sleep I realized it was a skunk smell.  Not typical to smell here, but not unusual.

I woke up again later. The skunk smell was not as strong.  I was groggy.  I shut down the computer and prepared to go to bed.  I checked at the door and Daisy was waiting.  I let her in and she went to her food.  I went to bed.

Sometimes Daisy will sleep on the bed with me and she came later.  I briefly woke up in the middle of the night to a strong skunk smell and groggily thought the skunk sprayed outside a second time before quickly falling back to sleep.

In the morning Daisy waking up, stretching and leaving the bed to go eat breakfast woke me up.  The skunk smell was not as strong when I got up.

After she ate Daisy wanted outside to go to the bathroom and do an early morning patrol.  Kelly stopped by to ask about hunting deer again this year on the ranch.  Daisy came to say hello and then we noticed a strong skunk smell.  We looked and saw her fur was yellow on her neck.



That explains everything.  Last night she was either defending the area or 'playing' with the skunk.   Daisy... Daisy... Daisy.

Daisy followed Kelly and I around the pasture as we checked his tree stand and other potential sites to maybe move it.  When I got back to the house the skunk smell was strong.  Even though the temperature was only in the 50s I opened all the windows.  It got a little chilly in the house.

Later in the afternoon I got some tomato juice and rubbed it on her neck fur.  She didn't mind and continued to eat.  At one point she tried to lick the tomato juice off the napkin I was using.  Really Daisy? You like tomato juice?

After she finished eating she came and laid on her spot on the back of the couch.

After a bit of grooming and licking of the tomato juice from her fur a few times she moved to lay on the couch right next to me.  Her licking of the tomato juice allowed the skunk smell to come through again.  I hadn't put enough tomato juice on her.

While I don't have a good sense of smell, after a while I got a headache from the skunk smell and went outside for fresh air.

Right now it is balance between spraying lots of air freshener and getting used to the smell.

 Tomorrow I will try another recipe to remove the smell:

The formula:

One quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (or white vinegar)

1/4 cup baking soda

One teaspoon liquid soap

Apply and rinse off with water.

The fun never ends.

Fence check and river

After returning from my Washington trip, and before letting the cattle into the pasture, I double checked the fences to make sure they were alright.  Since Daisy was still in 'keep me in sight at all times' mode she came with me.  This is the farthest she has been from the house.  She does not like being carried so she walked the whole distance, even through the taller grass close to the river.

We had to take two rest stops for Daisy as the warm weather and distance was tuckering her out.  She first rested in the irrigation shed while I went to let the cattle into the pasture.  Later she rested along the river.

She is still trying to figure the river out.  She did eventually drink some of the river water.  Mostly she laid on some rocks and watched the water and stuff float by.  She even watched a few small minnows swimming near the rocks.
 

What is this Daisy?

After we got home she laid on the blanket next to me as I snacked.  She was so tired she didn't move when I got up off the couch.

Bruised nose

The other morning Daisy showed up with a bruised nose.  How?  I don't know.

Poor Daisy.

Falling down on the job

Daisy spends so much time outside she is falling down on her job of keeping the house mouse free.   This morning when I went to the neighbor's house to gather more fallen apples, there was Daisy.

Since I found the long dead mouse a few weeks ago I have trapped four more mice.  Tonight I got another mouse - one with a light touch as I had to bait the trap twice with peanut better for I caught it.    This mouse was trapped at its lower body instead of behind the neck.  Since it has a such a light touch the first time I baited the trap, I also put peanut butter on the trigger itself.  That got the mouse.

Since the mouse was alive I carefully picked up the trap and set it outside and then called for Daisy.  After a while she came strolling over from the hayfield.  She was interested in the mouse but acted nonchalant about it.  Eventually I left her to play with it.

A short video of Daisy and the mouse.  I'm surprised she doesn't get bitten more, especially as she tries yo sniff the mouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II9XPmY3xaU&feature=youtu.be

Sunset cat

Daisy kept me company until dark while I worked on a fence.

The other day while Dan and I looked at the cattle while standing at this rail fence. Daisy climbed up the four rails to the top rail and then walked back and forth in front of us.  She was flirting with disaster.  If she had slipped she would have fallen into the cattle's water trough.  She didn't fall.

An owl flew by as Daisy was on this top rail.  The owl flew into the big box elder tree nearby and began screeching.  Here is a short video (more audio as it was dark outside) or the owl screeching twice.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jEftCLaGRU&feature=youtu.be

Chilin' and grooming

Daisy likes to sleep during the day, spend the late afternoon and evening with me, and hunt at night.  If I don't work outside in the evening so she can spend time with me outside she can get a little annoyed with me.

Here we are spending time together while I look at the cattle across the fence and later when I am cutting some boards.

Daisy loves to lay in the concrete rings.

Daisy and I talk with one another (and a cow joins in).  She closes her eyes often when I have the camera out to take her photo. 12 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZA4iQnJTwk&feature=youtu.be

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More mice than last year

With the two shrews that Daisy caught last night, she has caught 56 (that I know of) mice so far this year.  That is one more than the 55 mice (that I know of) she caught last year.

Her total is helped by me letting her stay outside as long as she likes at night.  Last night she was outside from 11 pm to 6 am.  She slept on the back of the couch all day today and went back outside at 10 pm.

Zonked

When Tammy was here she wanted Daisy inside the house when it got dark.  I'm a little more lenient.  With the warm weather Daisy often spends much of the night outside and then sleeps much of the day.  Now that it isn't as hot Daisy doesn't spend as much time outside at night and not as much inside during the day.  That's her choice.

Being outside more at night means Daisy is catching more mice.  She has caught at least 52 mice so far this year.  Only a few less than she caught in all of 2013.

A downside of Daisy spending much of the night outside is that when she is hungry she comes to the door by my bedroom or the window and meows to be let inside just long enough to eat. Then she goes back outside.  Often I get up a few times a night to let her in and out of the house.


The past few evenings Daisy has been following me to the pasture to accompany me while I spray weeds. Tonight Daisy may not have wanted to go spray weeds as she would grab my leg as I started walking in the yard.  One time she grabbed onto my pants leg and pulled on it to stop me from walking.  Eventually she gave up and followed me to the pasture since that was the only way she could spend time with me right then.

We worked until dark Saturday night and didn't have time to see the river.  Tonight I sprayed close enough to the river that Daisy could wander over there while I sprayed.  I took a break when she first approached the river on a high river bank.  She got saucer eyes when she first saw the river.  Even high on the bank she slowly and cautiously approached the edge of the river bank to look down on the river.

As I worked my way along the pasture Daisy had several opportunities to view the river.  The one time the river bank was low the grass was so high she didn't find the river as the thick grass towered way above her.  Daisy mainly moved along when I did and didn't stray too far from me so she never really wanted to go all the way to the river.

When I was done spraying I walked to the river bank.  It was a high bank with a steep incline to the water.  Daisy was content to stay up on the river bank.  She never figured out that a river is made of water.  I could see her studying the river but she wasn't brave enough to approach it.

On the way back to the house I checked a pocket gopher trap and found I finally caught this pocket gopher.  Daisy promptly laid in the pocket gopher's hole as Daisy likes laying in holes.  She then listened to an owl's screech in the next pasture.

I am in part of the pasture with less weeds so I am doing more walking.  And so is Daisy.

Now that the second bedroom is no longer Tammy's office I reassembled the bed and placed it back in there.  Daisy has claimed it as her bed.

River

One day last week Daisy wanted to be with me at all times.  That time I canceled my weed spraying as Daisy followed me out into the pasture, even dodging the horses that were there.  So we did something else.

This afternoon Daisy insisted on following me everywhere.  This time I continued out to the middle pasture to spray weeds.   Daisy followed meowing almost constantly.

I have a pattern where I spray the weeds and walk back and forth.  The distance, while not long, was just long enough that Daisy would follow me end to end.  She avoided the spray and the sprayed weeds.  Finally halfway though spraying she finally decided to sit at one end and watch.   When I finished one pattern and started another then she would move closer.  She also got distracted a few times by something in the grass, maybe a mouse.  She also stopped meowing at me.

I told her if she behaved I would reward her with a surprise.

When I finished spraying weeds I walked - and Daisy followed - to the river.  When I got new yearling cattle each year I enjoyed watching the cattle the very first time they saw the river.  They would stop suddenly and their eyes got big when they first saw the river.

Since she is smaller and the grass taller Daisy didn't see the river until we got to the river bank.  I got a similar reaction. I wish I had my camera along.  Daisy didn't know what to make of the river.  I had picked a spot with a gravel bar that led out from the river bank.  However Daisy remained on the river bank and would not follow me onto the gravel bar.  She laid down and watched the river.  She would look upstream, then mid stream then downstream.  Over and over.  She watched leaves and stuff float by.  She watched the birds that flew about.  To get a better/different look she moved around a few times among the wood debris along the bank the water had left when it receded.  She couldn't figure out what the river was. The smell was even different from the smells she knew.   She never approached the water even when I called for her. I was surprised knowing how much she loves water that is not in her water dish.

Eventually we left and made the long walk home.  She has much to dream about tonight.

On the floor

Different bed laying

Daisy likes it up high.  This evening I was placing boards on top of the round bales in preparation of covering them with tarps.  I turned around and there was Daisy sitting and grooming herself like nothing special was going on.  How she got up on top of the tall bales....?    Guess she just wanted to be with me.

This afternoon she laid on the standing bed mattress instead of the box spring laying down.  I have the mattress standing for now to air it out.  The bed sat in the basement while Tammy used the bedroom as an office.  The other day I drug it out of the basement as I have company coming next week.

A cool quiet place to sleep on a hot day.

Scratched nose

A few days ago Daisy showed up with a mark on her nose.  Well, it is not dirt.  I tried to clean it off and found it is a scab.  She scratched her nose somehow and somewhere.

Catnip, etc

To protect Daisy's catnip plants from the horses stepping on them I put a wire fence around them.

Daisy likes to 'hide' in her catnip patch.

Daisy is happy the horses are out in the pasture and no longer in the yard.