A New Friend at the Farm

So since we moved in to the farm we have had a little bit of a rat problem in the barn. We have been setting rat traps and even set a small have a heart trap to try to catch the little buggers.  I have only caught one rat as they have so much other food they don't feel like bothering my traps.  Well this past week we have been finding dismembered rats all over the hay loft and throughout the barn so I set the large have-a-heart trap to try to find out what has been eating the rats.  Finally Wednesday we caught our suspect! 

Now in this picture he doesn't look too happy, and that's because he isn't happy at all.  We weren't sure what to do with him so we called the Franklin County Animal Shelter (check them and all the great things they do out here). https://www.fcanimalshelter.org/ and they suggested bringing him in for their feral cat program.  What they do to help keep the cat population down is a  Trap- Neuter-Release program - they spay and give shots to these feral cats for free and then send them back to their barn homes.  They even let us use their carry crate to bring our new friend home in. I picked him up today and brought him home.  I placed him in the hay loft with the cage closed for the afternoon and evening and made him a cardboard box and blanket home.  This evening at night check Allyssia and I brought him some food and water outside of his cage and opened it up for him to be free. 

He is looking a little bit happier and he even let me pat him a bit without hissing.  Now that he has a home he will hopefully stay around the farm . He needed a name so Allyssia and I decided on Simon.  He is not going to be a house cat but hopefully he will become a friendly barn cat and become a common sight around here.