Meet Mumford Orio Stewart
Our family Burmese cat. He only eats rabbit, hare with a few cat biscuits for a bit of variety.
Mumford is the reason I hunt small game most weekends and often in the evening after dinner in the daylight-saving months.
The majority of rabbit he eats is bow hunted along with some hare. But I usually have to travel to one of the farms in our greater district that I have access to for the hares; not many around us. I take the .22 and harvest about 16 or 20 in an evening, hang them in the chiller for the remainder of the night and take the legs and back steaks off in the morning before the day heats up.
Mumford is an amazing hunter; he is also a ‘contained ‘ cat. If we had him free ranging, we would have very little wildlife on our property or any of our neighbours.
At night he stays inside with us and in the morning, he chooses whether he goes and sleeps in his bean bag upstairs or goes to his large den outside. It looks more like a lion’s enclosure than a cat’s den.
Every afternoon he has a walk on a long lead, about 6m long, which allows him to get his hunting fix.
He catches bunnies, rats, mice and the odd stoat while on his lead. Every rabbit hole is logged in his GPS, and he checks them all out to see which ones have the most activity or movement, often sitting outside the entrance listening to noises down the burrow.
Some days I will grab my bow after work and meet up with Mumford and my wife who usually walks him and shoots a bunny for him, while he watches. He runs towards the bunny as soon as I release the arrow and grabs the rabbit. Then he is off, carrying the rabbit in his mouth, no matter how big it is. Often it is a 200m walk back to his den. He stops every 60 or 70m for a quick breather then he is off again.
Sometimes he doesn’t giveme a chance to retrieve my arrow if it’s still in the rabbit.
Mumford knows the difference between fresh and frozen meat. If I bring fresh meat to him or drop a fresh bunny into his den, he has to come and thank me before he has a bite.
Because of his clean raw diet, the vet’s always comment on how good his teeth and general health is.
Full of personality.
