Bebe Katz and the Big Owl

First, an explanation of the name. Bebe Katz' real name is Smokey. He is a long haired lynx-point siamese kitty we adopted from a shelter. Somehow when he was little he got stuck with the nickname. We continue to call him Bebe Katz (pronounced Baby Cats) even though he is now getting close to 2 years old. Since he answers to it, we figure he does not mind.

One evening I was working outside here at the Montana ranch when I saw a big owl fly over, swooping kind of low. It was clearly hunting. The evening was dark enough that I could not tell what kind of owl it was, but it was a big one and it cruised over the gravel parking area in front of the barn. I figured it was hunting mice.

Then, surprisingly, the owl swooped around and headed back toward me. It must have seen something, so I looked where it was going, and there, in the dusk, in the middle of the parking area, hunting his own mice, was Bebe Katz. This owl was big, and I know that owls will take cats sometimes, so I began racing over to save my kitty from the big bad owl.

However I underestimated Bebe Katz. He must have heard the owl approaching, for he looked up over his shoulder and spotted the bird. And without a second thought, he made his own attack, leaping straight up almost 4 feet in the air and grabbing for it with his front paws. I don't know who was more surprised, me or the owl. The bird sped off and I grabbed Bebe Katz and took him inside for the night. I still wonder what he would have done if he had caught that owl!

The Best Laid Plans...

Well, as the quote goes, our best laid plan to get our Montana ranch up and running before winter has been trumped by the earliest arrival of winter weather that anyone here can remember. This comes on the heels of the coldest, snowiest spring that anyone can remember, and the coldest, wettest summer. Thanks to all the weather delays, we find ourselves approaching winter (and it looks like it will be a hard one) without the facility being completely finished.

After the first two snow storms in September that dropped over a foot of snow, followed by the week of sub-freezing daytime high temperatures, Don came up from Arizona to check on me. We reviewed our options and decided that discretion is the better part of valor in this case...we will move the herd back to Arizona for the winter. While costly and a lot of work, this feels like the right decision. It is safer for me and for the alpacas. We will try again to get moved in up here next spring.

So starting in early November, look for us at Heartland Ranch, home of Mark and Rachel Hendrickson (and, formerly, Heartland Ranch Alpacas). Heartland Ranch is located about 30 miles north of the Mexico boarder, and about an hour southeast of Tucson. Come see us if you are in the area!