Hero Of The Day....Tipster

This morning (before my coffee, mind you), Shane says, “Cheyenne, come here….you have to see this”. I become a little wary whenever I hear him say that lately (our flooded kitchen the other night springs to mind). Since he was back by my son’s room, I figured…why not. I walk back there and on the floor near my son’s Happy Toy Maker truck (I’ll go over this some other day) is a dead mouse!! A feeling of pride wells up inside me! Why, you ask? Well….we have a house cat now. He joined us a couple of months ago. Let me tell you all about Tipster.

He’s an incredibly unique cat! Here he is:

He looks like he has Siberian Husky markings. His fur is unbelievable soft……..he loves to cuddle and lay on his back with his feet in the air. He’s a funny cat! He was given to my son by our neighbors, The Bolln’s. Traci (the daughter) had Tipster picked out to take to her house, but when Stone picked him she was gracious enough to let him bring Tipster home. Tipster came to us with a couple of his litter mates, Oreo and Mouse. From the beginning, my mom thought Tipster would make a super house cat. House cat? I didn’t want one of those at all! I’ve been through the whole litter box ordeal and I really didn’t need another job.

Stone fell in love with all of his cats, but he took a particular shine to Tipster. One day out of the blue, Stone asked if Tipster could come and live at our house. We mulled it over and decided that it might not be a bad idea to have a house cat (hence, our mouse problem). We would get set up and bring Tipster home. The only problem was that Mouse had passed away leaving Oreo alone if Tipster came to live with us. I decided that I needed to find some friends for Oreo. We have two older barn cats that we’ve had for ages, but Scotchy and Lollie detested the new recruits. I was on a mission to get a few more friends for Oreo.

I got home one night from working at the Swank Shop. I came into the house to find Shane, Stone……and Tipster!!! What?! Unfortunately, a visitor’s pickup ended Oreo’s life earlier in the day. (I no longer had to worry about finding more kittens to bring home.) Shane felt it best to bring Tipster home as he knew he probably wouldn’t make it through the night alone (we had only put them outside from the bunkhouse the previous week). I scrambled to make a makeshift litter box and rounded up some kitten food from the bunkhouse. That was the night that Tipster moved in!

I had already visited with the vet about getting Tipster neutered. I was glad I did because Tipster had squatted on my cowhide in the living room two times the first night he was in the house. I cleaned thoroughly after each incident and took him to his litter box. I’m happy to say that he never did it again. Maybe in part to getting him neutered (tom cats are bad for that).

I also broached the subject of declawing him. Yikes…..I’d never had that done to a cat before and I knew the kind of commitment we were making if we did that. Tipster’s days would be limited to our house from then on as he wouldn’t be able to defend himself. I made the commitment (knowing that I would be the litter box cleaner, cat food and water dispenser to our new cat from then on). Truly, I was doing it to save our nice leather furniture (something that I had dreamed of having most of my adult life).

So, a couple of days after moving in, Tipster went to the vet. He spent the night (declawing is pretty awful….I really didn’t know what all it entailed). Tipster also had to be opened up….not a simple neuter job due to his anatomy. We finally got Tipster home the next evening. He was pretty stiff in the front legs due to his declawing, but he healed up quickly. He was pretty lethargic for a few days, but he bounced back with vigor.

As time went by, it was apparent that Tipster is a long-term member of our family. My son loves him to death…..and Tipster absolutely loves him back! I’ve never seen a cat roll around exposing his tummy like he does.

See what I mean?

He is truly a lover and the sweetest cat ever! He loves to nap on our bed and has the funniest purr I’ve ever heard. I guess that covers Tipster coming to live with us. So, back to our find this morning.

A dead mouse is a beautiful sight! That may seem a bit callous, but if you’ve ever had a mouse problem you can relate to that statement. We live in a double-wide trailer next to a field…put your imagination to work. We have fought a mouse infestation since the beginning. Almost immediately of putting in our brand new house they showed up……very uninvited. We’ve tried everything…..poison, moth balls, dogs (that’s a good one….they would lay there and let a mouse run over their back while barely batting an eyelash), etc. I had thought about putting cats under our deck and outside of our house, but our three dogs would have likely made that a mess. We have trained them to put up with our free range chickens and our barn cats, but our youngest dog Remi (a blue heeler) always makes me worry as I’ve seen her when she thinks nobody is looking. If you know blue heelers then you know what I’m talking about! Finally, I had to just rely on the poison and moth balls as nothing else was working. Until this morning!

Here’s the mangy critter!

I posted this picture on Facebook/Instagram earlier this morning. People were commenting on the gun nearby! Haha! Yes, that’s how badly I detest mice….I’d like to shoot them all. Actually, this is one of Stone’s toy guns. It’s funny how it was left last night….with the mouse dead near it. Like I said, this was before my morning coffee! The thing that makes me shudder is that I was pretty sure we had our house sealed up so that mice weren’t getting in here anymore. Back to the drawing board on that subject I guess.

Anyway, Tipster is earning his keep and I couldn’t be more proud. Shane even remarked that he got the mouse without his front claws. Atta boy, Tipster! One less mouse……only 983,043 to go….starting NOW!! 🙂 ~Cheyenne