Raccoon and cats. 11.11.15

We put out a mineral block about 15’ to the left of our hives…Honey Bees can get salt if they want but we were hoping to get a few deer coming into the yard.

This little guy thinks it is a stool. One of the “teenagers”.

The others have already been in and cleaned up the old cat food. Guess he slept late…so I took some of the cat food out of the “feral cat feeder” and tossed it in the weeds for him.

It’s not fancy..but it keeps the Raccoons out. The skirt prevents them from reaching up to climb inside. I read that they cannot jump and this is how they put out feeders for a colony of stray or feral cats.

Jim built this when a stray mother cat came in. It will hold 3 weeks of food…they jump from the deck into it.

The cats now have “kitty” doors onto the screened porch…Jim put one on each side so they could not get trapped if something did get in.

Here they are…..sharing a bed.

The mother is the one on the right….she had 3 kittens but one was badly injured and had to be put down…the other just disappeared….so now we only have 2.

The cat feeder makes it possible for us to leave for a day or two. They’ve been eating there for a couple years so it’s not new. I don’t dare leave food on the porch…raccoons and opossums could get it and I don’t want to give them a reason to try and get in.