Wildlife meets domesticity at Middle Path

As with any rural setup domestic animals are a real asset for diverse reasons.

Rastus the cat came to us at a moment when we were experiencing a bush rat infestation in our ceiling-space.

While we are happy to provide a home for wildlife on Middle Path, we are less than enthusistic about providing a home within a home for such creatures and were getting desperate to find an acceptable solution.

Within hours of us deciding a cat was really the only viable option, a client arrived who was leaving the area and needed a home for a cat.

And so arrived Rastus - ratter extraordinaire who patiently tolerates all other forms of wildlife - including birds - the perfect solution to our problem.

Rastus is an expeditious and efficient dispatcher of rats and mice around our home.

Initially we were apprehensive about his attitude to the many birds and other wildlife who visit.

He is generally curious about anything new but, if it is not a rat or mouse he will generally ignore or tolerate their presence.

Here Rastus meets his first water dragon.

After circumspecting the intruder, Rastus generally acquaints himself with the front end and that is that.

Even outrageous intrusions by birds - here a magpie estimates whether it can fly the bone back to its young - stir little action and much disdain from rastus.

• Satin Bower Birds
• Cockatoos
• Bird feeding contests
• Ducks.
• Finches & Mannikins
• Flycatchers
• Tawny Frogmouth
• Herons
• Honeyeaters

• Birds of Prey
• Kingfishers
• Lorikeets
• Parrots
• Pigeons and Doves.
• Plovers - Masked Lapwing
• Welcome Swallows
• Feeding Welcome Swallow Chicks
• Water Birds (other)
• Birds without a page of their own

• Platypus.
• Koalas
• Possums

• Carpet pythons
• Water Dragons
• Tree Snakes.

• Frogs.

• Insects

• Encounters with the domestics.

• A Midnight Visitor.