My Cat is in the Chicken Coop... Again!

As soon as I finished writing my last post, I look out the window and see my cat, Bella, climbing out of our chicken enclosure. And this morning after I fed the chickens, she was in it again!


So much for building an impenetrable fortress.


I'm pretty sure I've figured out how she got in, because I watched her quickly exit while I shouted choice words at her that I cannot repeat here. Somehow, she got under the storage building our coop is built against and tunneled under the chicken wire and into the run. All that work, but not to eat the chickens (thankfully), but to eat the left overs we give them. Apparently, her cat food isn't cutting it.


I can't imagine how she managed to get under the building in the first place. There's wooden lattice going around the entire bottom foot because it's about half a foot off the ground. There's only one spot where it's missing, and that's on the inside of the run. Somehow, she must have squeezed her fat self through the lattice. That's the only way, unless she's pulled an El Chapo and tunneled in from somewhere else out of sight. Either way, I blocked off her entry point into the run with a very heavy bag of rocks. She shouldn't be able to get in, unless she's been juicing up with the shady cat next door. He hangs around the coop a lot. I don't trust him.


If I've learned one thing, it's that your chickens are never safe. And maybe the reason they call them crazy cat ladies is because the cats drive them crazy. Or because they raise hell and you'd be crazy to still love them, but you do and you can't help yourself. It's probably both.


Of all the potential predators, I figured my cat would be relatively easy to keep out, because she gets fed and isn't dependent on hunting or finding another food source. But that fat twat is giving me more trouble than anything else at the moment. I can only hope she's the only animal taking up breaking and entering and burglary as a side hobby. But I have the feeling she's just the first of many to try their hand at coop invasion this winter. Stay tuned!