Helping paint the toolshed

Yesterday on my main blog I posted about painting my toolshed.    https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2024/12/tool-shed-painted-for-now.html

Rascal helped me when I painted the east side of the toolshed.   He did management to make sure I was doing it correctly.   Then he came up close to check the paint job.   I don't have photos of him after I painted the side.  But in the photos below he did the same thing after I painted the side.  Over the next few days I had to brush and/or use scissors to clip his fur to get the paint off from his tail and his back.

From where he sat in the previous photos he can stand up and jump onto the building's roof.  He was looking over the edge to watch me.  By the time I got my camera out he walked away.

Sitting in the sunshine

Now that Fall is arriving and the temperature is below freezing in the morning, in the morning after Rascal and I get up Rascal goes and looks out the window and sits in the sunshine for a little while.

Much of this afternoon while I painted the barn Rascal initially laid on the ground near me in the corral.  I wish I had my camera with me, but I didn't.  After a bit he went into the barn and climbed up upon a large stack of hay bales and spent hours there until I was done painting and it was getting dark.  Then we went into the house together to eat our suppers.

Once again on the fence

Rascal was once again on the fence looking for mice in the hayfield.

Looking and listening for mice

First off in the morning Rascal likes to sit on the concrete patio area outside the south door and look and listen for mice in the grass.  Earlier I found two dead shrews on the sidewalk in front of the house.

I took off the window screen to get a better view of Rascal.

Yesterday in the hayfield as I walked back from checking on the pocket gopher traps Rascal came out a long way in the growing grass and alfalfa and then guided me back to the house.  He looks out for me.

Mouse in the house

I got back to leaving one door partially open early morning so Rascal can go in-and-out without me having to get up to open the door for him over and over.   But this morning I then heard Rascal running around, something he doesn't usually do.  I got up and found him 'playing' with a mouse in the hall near my woodstove.   The mouse ended up dead.  I went back to bed.

The battered box is what I use to place a few extra logs when I use my woodstove in the wintertime so the logs don't make a mess on my carpet.

Looking for a mouse in the grass

Yesterday afternoon Rascal was looking for a mouse in the yard grass.   The irrigation line reached this part of the yard so that is why the grass looks good and is tall.

Here is a 16 second video of Rascal:  https://youtu.be/aF5MJmF-nW8

Then last night I left the door partially open as I was too tired to get up-and-down to let Rascal in-and-out during the night.  This morning I found the remnants of an eaten mouse in the hall outside my bedroom.

On the fence looking for mice

This morning Rascal wanted outside.  A short time later I seen him laying on a fence rail.   My hayfield's alfalfa is growing tall so it must be harder for him to sit in the grass looking and listening for mice, like I have seen him doing in the past.  Plus it rained overnight.  So this may have been a drier place to lay.

Fat or furry?

I haven't posted any photos of Rascal for a long time now.  Here are a couple of them.

While he is not a lightweight cat, the answer is that he is more furry than fat.