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Hangar Visitors While Building RV-12

J

JohnF

Well Known Member
I usually enjoy visitors, particularly those who have built a plane or just fly a spam can. I have one visitor that I found unusually interesting.

I had to run to the terminal for a few moments so I left the hangar bifold door open. When I drove back I saw a big tiger cat run out of the hangar.

The airport is a few miles from town, and in a somewhat wooded area, so I thought the cat was a feral animal. I bought a bag of cat food and put out a dish for him. All the food was gone the next morning.

This went on for a few weeks, so I began putting the food just inside the hangar, and moved it in a bit more every day. Soom the cat would come into the hangar to eat, and then run away. The thing was a tom cat with one ear pretty much chewed off, but other than that he seemed to be in good condition.

As time went on, and the cat food I was giviing him got better, he started responding to me, and after about three months I can finally pet him, and he rubs against me, but often takes a swat at me if I am not careful about petting him.

Its only 4-degrees F this morning, but when I drive up to the hangar and 'toot' my car's horm the old cat will come running out of the woods.

Don't know if he'll ever fly with me in the RV-12 or not, but he's good company.

John at Salida, CO
 
I believe I'd settle for him being your hanger buddy. I can just see the accident report now. Pilot makes emergency landing on road with no damage to aircraft but suffers serious injury from wild cat attack.:D
 
Flying Cats

I know of one shredded pilot and Luscombe upholstery when the 'volunteer' Tomcat tried to back out of sky diving in a home made parachute. It wasn't pretty!

I was the teenager on the ground who was going to catch him for redos. As he descended in the parachute he resembled a chain saw more than a cat. When he touched down, he scrambled out of his home made harness and ran off into the swamps never to be seen again.

Careful!
 
Really bad to feed feral cats

I hate to put a damper on feeding your new friend, but feeding feral cats is a disastrous environmental problem.

True feral cats are 'in balance' their food supply, like any other predator. But if they are also getting fed by humans, they get the best of both worlds. They can hunt all they want, and when food gets scarce, they will survive because humans feed them. They will clobber the natural populations of many birds and small animals, then other wild predators will also disappear.

I work on a large government installation with a lot of wild land. People were feeding feral cats, and they wiped out the pheasant population, plus many varieties of nesting shore birds, including endangered california clapper rail. Stopped seeing golden eagles soar outside my window too.

A strict ban on feeding the cats was enforced, and the cats were trapped and neutered. About 5 yrs later, the pheasants are just starting to come back, and I see a hawk or eagle now and again.

You might think its great to have the cat keep the mice away from the hangar, but feeding feral cats has far-reaching consequences.
 
Vern,I laughed until I cried. On the other side of the coin we have no quail any more because of the house cats gone feral. It is a real problem.
 
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Re-domesticated

Years ago we (my X more than me) took the last surviving kitten of a feral cat in. Mom cat and the kitten's siblings all fell to a harsh winter and tape worms. Yeah, we were feeding them and got pretty attached.

Built a quarenteen where we kept the kitten for a month, took him to the vet, and when given a clear bill of health, took him in.

That cat was NEVER a good pet. Always afraid, no matter how much we worked on him and he was never very helthy either. Learned a lot about feline diabetes along the way.

Never did much like that one.

Cut your losses and do what you need to do to make that one go back to the woods before it's too late.
 
Bless You

JohnF said:
I usually enjoy visitors, particularly those who have built a plane or just fly a spam can. I have one visitor that I found unusually interesting.

I had to run to the terminal for a few moments so I left the hangar bifold door open. When I drove back I saw a big tiger cat run out of the hangar.

The airport is a few miles from town, and in a somewhat wooded area, so I thought the cat was a feral animal. I bought a bag of cat food and put out a dish for him. All the food was gone the next morning.

This went on for a few weeks, so I began putting the food just inside the hangar, and moved it in a bit more every day. Soom the cat would come into the hangar to eat, and then run away. The thing was a tom cat with one ear pretty much chewed off, but other than that he seemed to be in good condition.

As time went on, and the cat food I was giviing him got better, he started responding to me, and after about three months I can finally pet him, and he rubs against me, but often takes a swat at me if I am not careful about petting him.

Its only 4-degrees F this morning, but when I drive up to the hangar and 'toot' my car's horm the old cat will come running out of the woods.

Don't know if he'll ever fly with me in the RV-12 or not, but he's good company.

John at Salida, CO
Click to expand...

There is a place in heaven for you John. I have been a rescurer of strays my whole life and it's most rewarding.
 
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