‘GUARD’ CAT HELPS FEED THE HORSES

Our work goes on at Christmas, there are cats, dogs and birds to be fed, poorly animals to be nursed and every day we take feed and hay up to the horses.  Our constant companion in this job is one of our resident cats called Talullah.   You may remember her coming in, she was a stray and this was unusual because she is a most beautiful young lady Maine Coone.  Surely someone would want her?   Not so.  Talullah has an awkward personality, she isn’t a pick up and cuddle feline! We love her to bits but where are the plasters?

Talullah likes freedom, she doesn’t like being confined and any sort of sociable behaviour is on her terms.  Gradually though she has fitted in with life here so long as we leave her to do her own thing.   Talullah is big, bouncy and she’s the boss, she takes her role as Yard Cat Manageress seriously.

She follows us round, checking what we’re up to and feeding the horses is what she likes to do best.   Whenever she sees buckets and hay  being loaded on to the mini-tractor, she jumps on too and gets ready for a motor ride.  Talullah doesn’t mind the bumps, she sits firmly on the front seat next to the driver and off she goes.   When we get to the top horse field, she jumps down and goes to say hello.   Feed buckets are put out, hay is distributed, rugs are adjusted and all the time Talullah is checking that we haven’t missed anyone.

When everyone is fed and we’re ready to come back, Talullah is back on the front seat and ready to go.   It’s amazing to see her – she doesn’t move until we park up and then she jumps down, has a fuss and strolls off.   This clever cat never misses her ride on the tractor and feed the horses routine.   It would be a brave fox or dog predator who would tackle Tallulah – maybe she’s our ‘guard cat’ and wants to go with us to make sure we’re all right.