Whenever somebody tells me they've seen a mouse or a rat in their home, I always tell them the same thing: get a cat. I have lived in apartment buildings with rodent problems, but as long as I had a kitty on my side of the door the mice would always skip my apartment. Yes, it's true that dogs have a wider range of job opportunities, but that doesn't mean cats are lazy. They've just chosen to focus on one specialty which they do very well.
Author Jonathan Katz writes about his new barn cat, Mother, who taught him that nothing beats a cat when it comes to pest control:
The farmers told me there was nothing much to be done: Rats, naturally drawn to farms, were smart, hardy, and tough to get rid of, especially with other animals around. They had countless holes in stone walls and rotted silos to nest in. They figured out traps. And I couldn't spread poisons around a barnyard full of sheep, donkeys, chickens, and dogs. A farmer friend suggested a barn cat. He was about to weed out his own posse, and had one in mind for me, because she was used to dogs. She was young and scrawny and got her name—Mother—from her habit of caring for kittens, whether they were hers or not.
Read the full story: here.
Recent Comments