Re: Almost mouse free
"[...] a cat that would--successfully--hunt rattlesnakes."
A colleague in South Africa had a big tom cat that was a cross with a Cape Wild Cat. "Thomas" would often provoke a pack of local stray dogs. They would dutifully chase it - until it disappeared into large cardboard box lying on its side with the bottom backed up to a fence. The owner said the cat had positioned the box just so. Only one dog at a time could get their muzzle into the box opening - whence they would get their nose slashed.
The colleague also had a plot of potential farmland. It included a kopje (hill) littered with stones and home to lethal spitting Cape Cobras. On visits Thomas would find himself a cobra to annoy. The snake would rear up with hood inflated. The cat would keep out of spitting range - while circling round the snake. To keep watching the cat - the snake gradually twisted its body to the limit. At the point when it had to untwist - the cat would streak in to grab it behind the neck and kill it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
