Flaxfarm
New Team Members at Flax Farm
Yellow Neck Mice
Last autumn the area was invaded by a plague of yellow-necked mice which were trying to chew their way into the Flaxjack kitchen. They had to be stopped, there were too many to control with traps and I didn’t want to use poison because I didn’t want to risk harming wildlife as we are lucky enough to have four species of owl living here and kestrels So decided cats were a favourable option.
New Organic Pest Control Team
The Celia Hammond Trust which specialises in rescue and rehoming of feral cats was recommended to me. I got in touch with their local rescue centre and told them I was brought two lovely young cats who’d been rescued from the Heathrow area, Ginger and Tortie. Ginger, is a beautifully marked ginger, tabby male with white socks, bib and nose nose, Tortie is female, she’s a tortoiseshell of softly smudged, yellow, cream and black with pretty green eyes.
The cats were very nervous to start and we couldn’t get anywhere near them. After a few months, they started to become a little less scared and didn’t run off every time they saw us. As time went on they became tamer. Ginger particular seemed very happy with his new home, would greet us with his tail up, little chirrups and rolling delightedly in front of us. Both of them though are still too nervous to be stroked though sometimes I can run my fingers over ginger’s tail.
Cats are settling in
Both cats enjoy the company of the dogs, Ginger particularly adores Mack the older spaniel and rubs up against him and sometimes tries to lure the puppy into a game of chase.
The cats have been here eight months now. They’ve settled in well and are now part of Flax Farm, everyone here loves them. For a while, they used to stand on their hind legs and peep in through the windows. Now they often sneak into the house, their favourite place to sleep is on clean washing. Tortie comes in to use the old cats’ scratching board in the house. When I take the dogs on their last walk of the evening the cats come.too. Fortunately, the lane is quite quiet otherwise Tortie’s camouflage colouring would be a worry.
When I got them I was told they had been part of a feral colony and certainly they seemed pretty wild. Now it looks as if they had been pet cats sometime in their early life but something bad happened to them, they were abandoned. and lost their trust of people. They have become very sweet, obviously enjoy human company, sitting outside the office and liking to be near me when I’m in the garden. It’s sad to think about what has happened to them but they are making the most of their new life. The are thoroughly spoiled now and eat lots.
Organic Mouse control works
Have they cleared the mice? They don’t do much hunting, they don’t have much ambition beyond being couch potatoes but just having them about the place has done a good job of deterring the mice, we haven’t seen a mouse in months which means they’ve probably returned to the woods to be the owl’s dinner! Poison would have been a far cheaper option but the project of getting cats to keep down the mice has been a great success for Flax Farm, the cats and the owls.