I really enjoyed Richard Taylor’s story about his cat and the Smokiejoe fly. I’ve had up to nine indoor and outdoor cats at one time in colors ranging from black/dark gray, brown/tortoise shell, medium dun and pure white. All my cats enjoyed being groomed with a wire pet brush and in the hot summer weather gladly provided bagfuls of fine, soft dubbing. I thought that I was the only person who regularly used this wonderful dubbing. Anyone else want to fess up to using this very cheap source of free fur? 8T
BTW, I’m now down to just two cats so I’ve also had the sad experience of that last trip to the vet and wrapping then in that favor blanket. One of my cats made it to 19 years old.
I also enjoyed the story. I have 2 cats and one Boston Bulldog in my home and they can sure make you forget about the lousy day at work after you get home!
The only thing that bothers me is looking at that beautiful picture of his wonderful cat. It really brings tears to my eyes to know that beautiful animal is gone. You can tell from the picture that that cat was special…
Sorry for the sad note…It was a great, but, sad story.
Thanks for the kind words about our “Smokiejoe” aka “The Ruler of the House.” She was a special pet and we hated to see her have to leave because of the cancer. She was quite the hunter and would often leave a “trophy” at the back kitchen door to show her prowess. My wife would go to the kitchen and I’d hear her say “Smokiejoe” has left us another treat. Laying just outside the door on the doormat was usually a mouse head looking up at you and maybe a small pile of not so tasty entrails. Going to keep that “Smokiejoe” fly with her photo and maybe tie another one to fish.
My cats were more the big game hunters though I don’t think they have ever taken on a woodchuck, which is a good thing. I’ve watched a particularly large chuck back down a pack of three medium sized dogs with a series of charges and some well placed nips.
My cats are/were particularly good at catching chipmunks. I would rescue a captured, uninjured chipmunk only to see the same poor animal being carried around by the same cat an hour later. Even when the chipmunk made it back to the hole, the cat would just go back and wait quietly for the chipmunk to come back out. A larger cerebral cortex is a wonderful thing. My cats also managed to make a sizable dent in the squirrel population. I encouraged this type of hunting----hate those darn, destructive tree rats. They also left the tails pretty much intact which worked out very well for fly tying.
8T
our Pixie Bob cat, named Tang, has perfect tummy fur for Hare’s Ear Nymphs. it’s spotted so there is light for the abdomen and dark for the thorax. some of you got one of these special flies in the Pet Fur Fly Swap we had a while back. Tang is a very special cat because you can turn him over and snip exactly the color you need and he won’t bite. three or four snips make over a dozen flies.
he is a young, tough cat who joined us after the passing of our 16 year old Egyptian stray. in August he ran away the day before we went to Montana to fish. 10 days later as we walked up the driveway from the taxi, here came Tang out from under the juniper trees near the house…whew! we have begun to find those little bodies around, so we know that the vermin problem which his predecessor took care of is still under control!
OK OK a while back I got into my first fly swap her at FAOL, it was called the pet fly swap or something like that. The only rule was at least 1 of the ingredients had to be hair, fur, or feather of one of your pets. You would not believe the flies that came out of that swap.
You can tell from the picture that that cat was special…
