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.

KOMPOT!

Bandit and Mango

I must admit that it has been a very nice experience to live right next door to a husband and wife who were born in Ukraine. They both arrived in California decades ago as young children. They were immigrants in what must have been a strange new world for them. But, they adapted. They grew up. They met, they fell in love, got married and started a family. This journey came to my attention when they purchased the home next door some years ago.

I couldn't ask for better neighbors. Sometimes I feel like I've won a lottery of life. The children from this marriage have been called upon, or put to work so to say, to name the beasts that are pictured above. Both cat and dog were procured from the Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento County. The dog, a Border Collie, was christened with the name of Bandit. The kitten received the title of Mango.

Recent Tomato Haul

I've come to learn that this family loves the produce that comes from the over-sized gardens that I plant every spring. I always make the mistake of planting far too much than I could ever consume, which means the multitudes of tomatoes, squash, peppers, onions and other garden goodies are always searching for a home. They have found a home next door (and elsewhere).

They have also been introduced to the tree-ripened delight of Black Mission figs. I first experienced this delight last year when the tree I planted three years ago suddenly delivered a small crop of fruit. Although I've planted and nurtured a multitude of fruit trees, this would be my first experience with tree-ripened figs. Oh my! I can begin to understand now why figs were, at one time, the most widely planted of all fruit trees in California.

Black Mission Fig Tree

The crop that is coming off the tree this summer can be described in many ways. But, the word "small" is not one of them. Dozens of figs are now ripe for the picking every single day. While I always enjoy five or six pieces of daily, tree-ripened fruit, the dozens that are coming off the tree right now are a bit much. They have found a home next door, across the street, down the block and even at a local dog park where Bandit can terrorize other dogs and dog owners.

It is this gift of fruit, plus other summer garden produce, that resulted in the discovery of an old Russian and Ukrainian heirloom recipe. It's called Kompot (Kohm-Poat). It's a simple way of using a lot of tree or bush-ripened fruit to make a fresh and natural fruit juice that is out of this world GOOD.

Black Mission Figs

I suppose you could call this the old-fashioned way of making Kool-Aid. It's just much healthier. It's also much, much better.

The introduction to this crazy-good concoction made a surprise appearance at my front door the other day. It was a gift from my Ukrainian neighbors. This particular Kompot was made with strawberries and blueberries. I instantly fell in love with it. I'd never tasted anything like it. I would come to learn that Kompot can be made with any combination of tree-ripened fruit. Or, it can be made with just one type of tree-ripened fruit.

Like, Black Mission figs, for example.

Making Kompot

The glass jug that my neighbors of Ukrainian descent used to introduce me to the wonders of Kompot would be returned two days later. That's how long it took me to drink a quart of strawberry and blueberry Kompot. It was that good. But, this jar would not be returned empty. It was cleaned and filled again. It would be returned with a Black Mission fig mixture of Kompot.

If one were to cast votes on this matter, I would personally choose the Kompot that came out of the neighbor's kitchen. That combination of strawberries and blueberries was truly something special. I wish I could share that taste with you. It is out of this world good.

Black Mission Fig Kompot

But, other people also get to cast votes in this election. It's a split decision. The neighbors who introduced me to Kompot claim they like my Mission Black fig creation just a tad better.

You can't ask for better neighbors. You really can't.

This is the recipe I used to make my own version of Black Mission fig Kompot. I also modified it a tad, so I've listed it below. Although this is a recipe that I used to create Kompot from Black Mission figs, any fruit can be substituted.

This is the month of August in California. What California fruit ripens during the month of August? EVERYTHING!

Have fun!

Black Mission Fig Kompot

-25 soft to the touch, tree-ripened Black Mission figs

-1.5 gallons water

-1 to 1.5 cups sugar (depending upon how sweet you want it)

Directions:

-Cut figs into quarters and set aside

-Fill a large pot with 1.5 gallons of water and bring to a boil

-Add quartered figs and return to a boil

-Reduce heat to a simmer. Do not cover pot

-Simmer for 30-45 minutes.

-Turn stove off after simmering is complete. Add sugar to water and fruit. Stir to mix. I covered the pot and let this mixture sit overnight.

-Straining the fruit from the liquid is tricky. I just dumped the entire concoction into a plastic one gallon jug. I used a colander to strain the juice into two half gallon jugs. Seeds from the figs do pass through, but I didn't mind. If you want a clearer fruit juice, minus the seeds, you can place cheesecloth into the colander during the straining process.

The left-over fruit used from creating this mixture is also very tasty. It can also be used in another dish called Kissel. This recipe comes courtesy of Natasha's Kitchen. Scroll past the Kompot recipe to access the instructions for Kissel.

The Kitten Chronicles

Mango

Meet Mango. That's the name that the children who live next door to me bestowed on the beast of a kitten that I adopted as a four-week old in mid May from the Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento County. He may look cute. He is cute. But, Mango serves a far more important purpose than just pure orange kitten cuteness. Mango is my new garden enforcer.

The Sacramento County Shelter likes prospective kitten owners to fill out a lot of paperwork before any adoption can take place. I clearly remember one question that the Bradshaw Shelter posed: "What do you expect your new kitten to do?" I nearly put down something snarky like "croon like Frank Sinatra," but I had second thoughts. I just put down the following: "be a typical kitten."

Bandit and Mango

In all honesty? I adopted Mango for a reason. The first was to become a lifelong pal to the Border Collie named Bandit. The same neighborhood children who named Mango were called upon to name the beast I brought home from the same Bradshaw Shelter in July of last year. But, Bandit needed a buddy. Bandit got a buddy. It worked. When the two aren't trying to bite each other to pieces in a never-ending play session, they are curled up in the most ridiculously heart-rendering pose you will ever witness.

They are my new Frick and Frack.

The second reason why I adopted Mango was out of pure garden frustration. An army of rats, opossums, skunks, birds, and other wildlife regularly assaulted the large gardens that I planted the previous two years. The large heirloom tomato crops were chewed up and eaten. Every kernel of Golden Bantam corn was stripped away and consumed. The California Wonder Bell Peppers were hauled off and spirited away. My nightly garden raiders even developed a taste for Yellow Crookneck Squash!

Garden in July

But if this wasn't bad enough? It didn't stop there. The 101st Airborne Rat Army that dropped in every night weren't just satisfied with stealing every last heirloom tomato. They didn't stop until they had consumed large portions of the plants themselves. Which should be poisonous to them. Unfortunately, these rats seem to be immune to anything in the deadly Nightshade family.

I've faced raids by rats in the past. In my North Natomas gardens they would drop in from time to time to filch a tomato or a mandarin. They might have even drilled a hole into a watermelon. But that damage was minor. I could live with one or two missing tomatoes. I could lose one watermelon or cantaloupe and "be one with nature."

But the garden raids that started two years ago were like nothing I had ever witnessed or experienced before. I had never before lost an entire crop of Brandywine tomatoes. Watching 60-70 Lemon Boy tomatoes suddenly vanish in the space of a week was simply too much to bear.

Tiny Kitten

Those big, giant, old-fashioned rat snap traps were not the solution. Sure, I might get five or six of them. But that didn't stop the dozens that came over the fences every night. Rat poison wasn't an option. That will just kill anything and everything that eats a poisoned rat. Besides, given a choice between rat poison and a vine-ripened Mortgage Lifter tomato, the rat is always going to choose the Mortgage Lifter.

Rats aren't stupid. They are, however, destructive.

Enter Mango. Stage right. I didn't really have high hopes. After all, the boy I had adopted was just a kitten. How is a small kitten going to stop a big and nasty rat? Or, more to the point, the 101st Airborne Rat Army? These are big, nasty, mean and hungry creatures. Will a kitten really stop them? A tiny orange ball of fluff?

Garden Enforcer at Work

That answer, so far, is yes he will. Yes, he has. But the most important test is yet to come.

Mango's education as a garden enforcer started with small prey. My boy began to haul small bugs into the house. Much to my horror, I realized those small bugs were, in fact, cockroaches. There's nothing quite like the feeling of dread that washes over you when the kitten hauls in a big, fat, fast cockroach and then drops it on the carpet.

Cockroaches run very fast. They head for the nearest dark crevice of safety, where they can set up a new home and produce lots of other cockroaches. That's what these bugs intended to do. Unfortunately, none of them were fast enough. Just before they could reach any measure of safety, Mango would catch them, flip them in the air, pick them up, bite them and start the entire play process all over again. When the roach stopped moving, he ate it. Every last bit of it. Munch, munch, munch.

You and I like popcorn, right? Perhaps a crunchy bell pepper? Tree-ripened fruit perhaps? My cat likes cockroaches. A lot. Deal with it. When he decimated the cockroach population in my yard, he took his hunt to the next door neighbor's house. The neighbor did not complain. Not one iota.

Squash Plant Patrol

I didn't adopt Mango to kill rats. I know this will probably happen at some point, but that wasn't my intention. My hope was he would scare them out of his yard. This is exactly what has happened. I can hear the squeals of terror that come at night when he surprises one. The next sound I hear is that of a rat scurrying over the fence to safety. That's fine with me. He's scaring the rats. He also chased a baby opossum into another yard. Perfect.

But, the biggest test is yet to come. The Garden Enforcer is doing his job, so far. However, the main crop of heirloom tomatoes has yet to ripen. While Mango has already prevented many raids from taking place, the real test will come in August, September and October.

Zero Damage

But, if you were to ask, my answer is "so far, so good." I'm harvesting vine-ripened tomatoes. I'm harvesting perfect Yellow Crookneck Squash. Garden peppers of all shapes and sizes are turning red and haven't been molested. Compared to what took place the previous two summers, the change has been dramatic.

But, will it last? Stay tuned. The Kitten Chronicles, featuring Mango the Garden Enforcer, will continue.