The END!

The Cat and The RAT!

It is the end. Both literally and figuratively. It is the end of summer gardening season. And, if you look closely at the photo to your immediate right, it is also the end for that creature to the left of my ginger kitten.

I knew that this was going to happen at some point. There was going to come a time and day when Mango the Ginger Kitten was going to trap and catch a rat. That day came just the other day when I noticed this creature hanging from Mango's mouth as he proudly trotted by the back door leading to the backyard.

"That," I said to myself, "is a big, FAT, rat." I was immediately worried that Mango was headed for the garage door, which he can access to get inside the house and outside again. His intent, I thought at the time, was to haul that big, FAT, catch inside the house.

Captured Garden Raider

I took immediate action to make sure that wasn't going to happen.

As it turned out, Mango had no intention of hauling his catch inside the house. His intention was to prance around the yard for all to see and witness his hunting glory, before he dropped his catch on the backyard patio. You can guess what happened next.

I strongly suspected that rat didn't have much longer to live. My suspicion would turn out to be correct. I didn't watch what happened next, of course. That may be a rat. But it's also a living, breathing creature. I felt a bit sorry for the fate it would soon endure. But, nature is nature. You cannot and should not interrupt that process. I did not. When I returned to the french doors leading to the backyard garden an hour later, the deed was done.

Mango, of course, was very proud of his work. He chose to thank me for the care, love and cat food I provided for him during the summer by depositing a freshly harvested rat at the back door. I praised him for his work profusely, before depositing his "gift" into a sack. That sack went into the nearest outdoor trash can, leaving Mango free to prowl and hunt again. I do believe this was his first catch. I also believe it will not be his last. Not even close. He is just getting started.

The Mango

As badly as I feel for what happened to this rat, and the others who will join him, this was the plan. Mango was adopted from the Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento County in May for this exact purpose. A day after his adoption, this four-week old kitten was introduced to the trails I had created in the vegetable garden that I had planted just two short weeks earlier.

Mango turned out to be the solution I sought for years of rat raids in the garden. One tiny kitten is all it took to put an end to the misery of losing entire harvests to an army of voracious night-time raiders that gobbled up everything that I grew. Nothing else had worked. Rat traps got a few. But, trapping one rat didn't stop ten others from raiding the garden. The adoption of a Border Collie chased some away. But they just returned after the Border Collie went inside for the night.

The rats were not afraid. They returned. Night after night. Some nights they took a little. Other nights they took a lot. Waiting for a fat Brandywine tomato to ripen was a lesson in failure. No matter where it was on the vine, high up or down low on the bush, the rats always found it. Every morning revealed fresh damage.

End of Summer Garden Season

All of this damage, years of lost crops, came to an immediate end the moment that a four-week old kitten entered the garden last May. Everything stopped. The vegetables grew. They were not molested. Not one tomato. Not a single bell pepper. Even the bugs stayed away from the bush beans. There wasn't a single rat raid. Birds didn't risk a landing to peck at anything. Even the possums and skunks kept a healthy and respectful distance.

The result? By the end of this season, I was giving away as much as I could. I have a collection of pressure-canned tomato sauces and whole tomatoes. My neighbors received sacks of fresh produce. I even invited a few members from the Facebook gathering spot of Sacramento Gardening Group to drop by and take as much home as they could carry.

It was just that type of year. It's over now. Time to move on to the next garden challenge. Which is why there are piles and heaps of garden plants here and there. And, for each pile, there is a cat waiting to taste another opportunity.