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Working on our churches playground last Saturday. A pair of mocking birds were having a fit . My wife walked over to see what the fuss was about . 5-6 foot rat snake was trying to climb the tree to get to their nest of babies. We're in an area that has had some snake handling churches but we are true Southern Baptist. I told the guys if someone would catch it I would put it in my hay barn . Wished I had videoed 4 grown men trying to catch a rat snake from under the shrubs at church. No one got bit ; a couple of close calls ; but finally he was put in a feed sack and my wife carried him to the hay barn . After a short break we went back to work on the playground . And no , I don't do snakes ! 😳
Salvation on Sand Mountain, by Dennis Covington. MIL sent it to us years ago; a firsthand account of snake handling and redemption. :oops:🪱
 
I feed a incredible beautiful elusive strong&fast wild cat (only seen him 5 times in 3 years) and at least one possum at the barn....I don't see any rats, mice or snakes (anywhere on my land, underthings or in hollowed logs) since these good friends of mine inhabit my barn. The cat was just a helpless little abandoned skinny kitten but somehow she survived her first year alone before i started setting out feed where I caught him sleeping a year later.
 
I feed a incredible beautiful elusive strong&fast wild cat (only seen him 5 times in 3 years) and at least one possum at the barn....I don't see any rats, mice or snakes (anywhere on my land, underthings or in hollowed logs) since these good friends of mine inhabit my barn. The cat was just a helpless little abandoned skinny kitten but somehow she survived her first year alone before i started setting out feed where I caught him sleeping a year later.
One of my garage cats (as opposed to the barn cats), teaching her kittens the proper way to kill, eat (and subsequently throw up) a snake.
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One of my garage cats (as opposed to the barn cats), teaching her kittens the proper way to kill, eat (and subsequently throw up) a snake.
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So tame and cute! ...My Barn cat is a black cat with a full white (uniform) tuxedo chest....it's the coveted wild stallion of horses....nothing and nobody will ever bring in this cat....rare sightings is all he permits.
 
I let even the poisonous ones live - unless they get too close to the house. This one (copperhead) was in the garage. Nope!
yep. we only have rattlers (and coral snakes). most around here kill them all, Grampa did too but I only kill them if they are around the house or barn/corrals. my youngest was bit at 18 months and we get an animal bit occasionally, but they are part of the ecosystem and I have seen in my lifetime a reduction in the ones that actively buzz. I think it is because those are the ones we have killed off. I would rather get a warning and move away.
 
Found this thing in a barn. Looks like something or somebody got to it before I did and made it a good one. The part that's there is probably a couple feet, and pretty good size around, though that might be partly due to being swelled up dead a while. View attachment 18631
That's a black spitting rattleCobramoccasin
 
So tame and cute! ...My Barn cat is a black cat with a full white (uniform) tuxedo chest....it's the coveted wild stallion of horses....nothing and nobody will ever bring in this cat....rare sightings is all he permits.

This was my tuxedo tom.. FEARLESS, and great mouser.. too fearless for his own good though, got taken by either an owl or coyote
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Here's what we call a rat snake here.. don't see them much, this one was close to 6 ft
 
This was my tuxedo tom.. FEARLESS, and great mouser.. too fearless for his own good though, got taken by either an owl or coyote
Some claim an owl can't take a cat because they are too heavy. Not true. They swoop down, and even if the cat is too heavy to fly away with, the way the owl grasps the cat as owl swoops down, their talons puncture the lungs and the owl will then flutter fly along the ground dragging the heavy feline off into the brush to tear it apart.
But, a big owl can lift most average cats if they have a clear path to get back into the air. Watched one of our cats meet it's demise on the powerline easement in front of our old place one night. From 100' away, I could hear the 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' of the owls wings as it never really broke flight and then returned to altitude and a handy tree with kitty screaming below.
 
Some claim an owl can't take a cat because they are too heavy. Not true. They swoop down, and even if the cat is too heavy to fly away with, the way the owl grasps the cat as owl swoops down, their talons puncture the lungs and the owl will then flutter fly along the ground dragging the heavy feline off into the brush to tear it apart.
But, a big owl can lift most average cats if they have a clear path to get back into the air. Watched one of our cats meet it's demise on the powerline easement in front of our old place one night. From 100' away, I could hear the 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' of the owls wings as it never really broke flight and then returned to altitude and a handy tree with kitty screaming below.
They can also snatch small dogs.
 
They can also snatch small dogs.
When our Heeler had her pups, there was a great horned owl that seemed to start staying close by. We along with the mother dog were always on guard when we had them out in the yard, Early one morning when the mother was let out of the house she made a bee line towards the side of the yard and was barking ferociously at the owl sitting on a fence post. We also had to be on guard about the black buzzards as they would sometimes swoop down real low almost to the ground around the pups. The mother would run at them, and still does if she sees a large bird flying over, she runs towards it and barks.
 
Since cats kill over a billion birds a year, it may be turn about is fair play when a bird kills a cat. Many bird species are in severe decline. Can't say the same for cats.
 
Clyde the cat is a survivor. We have no shortage of owls, hawks, eagles, coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions. All of which would like a nice meal of cat. A year ago he showed up with a big cut on his back. I am sure that an owl just missed. I have never seen him get a bird but he is a great mouser. I see his track out to the end of the driveway a quarter mile from the house. My son saw him while deer hunting up on the hill half a mile from the house. Clyde wanders far and wide.
Last summer we could smell skunk and thought the dogs got to mud wrestling with a skunk. But the dogs didn't stink. I found a big dead skunk at the base of a RR tie in the corral. A lot of meat had been eaten around its neck and shoulder. My guess is an owl got it and sat on top of that post eating its fill.
 
Some claim an owl can't take a cat because they are too heavy. Not true. They swoop down, and even if the cat is too heavy to fly away with, the way the owl grasps the cat as owl swoops down, their talons puncture the lungs and the owl will then flutter fly along the ground dragging the heavy feline off into the brush to tear it apart.
But, a big owl can lift most average cats if they have a clear path to get back into the air. Watched one of our cats meet it's demise on the powerline easement in front of our old place one night. From 100' away, I could hear the 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' of the owls wings as it never really broke flight and then returned to altitude and a handy tree with kitty screaming below.
we have some BIG owls up here.. the Great Gray owl is one that could certainly take a cat1657383701271.png
 

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