Friday 2 August 2013

Daisy and her deer

Such an angel –not!
Here is our wee Daisy. Runt of the litter, and much smaller than her twin, Dorah. She is a trouble maker, climber of trees, chaser of deer. Both kittens will be a year old this month. We're not sure when they were born, as they are rescue kittens.

The female deer isn't sure what to make of her! She is so wee, unlike our other cats.

We only have one male, Buster left. The other 3 cats are females, less inclined to wander. We've had two male cats struck by cars in the early morning on the highway.

Daisy is sitting in the rock garden;
'Bambi' watches her carefully
There was a male cat bothering Buster in the night for a couple of weeks. It began in July, cottage season. It would come to the back door, and you could hear the territorial male cats howling at each other in the wee hours.

We began to let Buster outside in the night to fight, since he'd otherwise take it out on his siblings. This is called deferred aggression, and we had this in another male cat, Max. We realized the only thing to do is to let them fight it out. Animals usually come to an agreement, unlike humans who like to fight to the death with weapons. Animals seem to convince one another and talk their foes down, better than humans.

Anyway, the cat that had been 'visiting' Buster, hubby found dead on the highway. He moved its body into the ditch. Terribly sad way to go.
Such a busy highway it is.

Daisy and the deer from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Daisy was playing in the rock garden. Bambi came along, fascinated with her! Daisy has inner bigness. I love the bobbing head, as the deer tries to figure out if Daisy is friend or foe!

Tigger followed Oliver,
Tigger's twin was in the forest,
shadowing us all on our forest walk.
I'm not sure if my readers remember that Oliver
Tigger's first antlers,
he went back to grazing after
I moved away.
used to be followed by Tigger, a fawn we saw grow!

I loved watching Tigger. He would literally bounce about in the back yard.

We could tell him by behaviour later, as he was the only deer that would approach us without fear. Then we could tell him by his wee rack when he returned!

Oliver is gone now –smucked by a car on the highway. (Yes, granddaughter, he did NOT look both ways. Good lesson to be learned.)
Tigger, foreground, and his twin brother last winter.
Here is another deer watching Felix (Buster's late twin),
 who ignored her!
Felix was also killed on the highway.

The deer are fascinated with the cats. Oliver liked to herd them, and get them away from the bird feeder, as well as the wild turkeys. Buster does the same thing.

Tigger has grown into a nice young buck. He came back to visit in January with his brother. I spotted him with his tribe last year. He also visited with his extended family. The males do not normally hang out with the females.
They have different winter yards.

6 comments:

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Your yard could be used as illustrations for a children's book (or one for grownups like me who believe in magic!). It is wonderful.

Karen said...

The deer will snort and stomp their feet if they see my poor old cat!
The turkeys put the run on her as well. She makes a bee line for the woodshed if they come after her.

Red said...

They seem to have a sixth sense and test each other out. They then find out that neither one can do any harm.

Kay L. Davies said...

Nice that Daisy has her own dear!
I still remember when Felix died. I was so sad for you.
Luv, K
PS, I saw a lovely big buck outside "Lindy's window" here by my computer tonight. He must have caught a glimpse of my movement, because he moved out, between our cars, and crossed the street to my neighbor's open front yard. But he was gorgeous.
K

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
I am super-impressed that you have a back yard where the deer and the antelope roam! These are adorable shots.

Seeing such a haven, it is a wonder that you have a lethal highway so close by - or that your cats felt the need to be anywhere near it. In his 17 years, Jasper never showed any inclination to play with the traffic and we lived on busy roads at both homes he knew. I am hugely grateful for that and sorry to hear you have lost pets this way.

Thoroughly enjoyed me visit here again! Happy weekend. YAM xx

eileeninmd said...

It must be a sight to see your kitty chasing a deer! Great photos, have a happy weekend!