Airport Critters

[Bill Greenwood]

Cat, the other white meat.

[Former Member]

Cat, the other white meat.

Watch out Bill ...my 20 lb. fat cat named "Pooh" says those are fightin words!!

[Eric Friedebach]

Cat, the other white meat.

Hey Bill, Spitfire the Cat over at the Fighter Factory wants to have a few words with you.

The Fighter Factory would cease to function if it were not for the presence of its most skilled and knowledgeable mechanic and manager, Spitfire the Kitten.

Although she weighs a mere 6.5 pounds and stands only 10 inches tall (in stocking feet), no one dares to question the authority she has over each and every member of our crew. A plane will not even leave the hangar if it has not passed her rigorous inspection process, a series of exacting test which include sleeping on the seats, getting dusty paw prints on the wings and sharpening her claws on the tires.

Spitfire came to us in the Spring of 2001, limping into the hangar bedraggled, frightened, and hungry. We fed the poor kitten food from our lunches and we gave her a place to sleep. She immediately adopted us. Her name comes from the plane, of course, but not because we liked it - she would sleep in its cockpit every night. The association was natural.

Now, she is fully grown, spayed, and as healthy as she can be. She loves to be held (when she is in the mood), and is incredibly playful. And yes, she does catch mice. So, when you stop by the Fighter Factory, be sure to say hi to Spitfire - and you best check in with her before you observe the planes - she doesn't like fingerprints on HER warbirds!

[PJ]

I love Warbird Bob. When I flew on 909 and Witchcraft last year, I asked about him and they said he is living with one of the mechanics because he scratched and/or bit someone. Probably got fingerprints on one of the planes.

[Eric Friedebach]

Just found this one this morning while I was looking for something else:



When we were moving some stuff into a new hangar a few years ago, this little guy jumped into the open door of someone’s brand new pickup, taking his lunch, and leaving nothing but muddy paw prints on the leather seats.

Bad doggie!

Oh, and yes you can get a T-28 tailcone through a regular door opening. Eventually.

[retroaviation]

Heck, even the hangar cats want more of WIX........

[Beachy]

Heck, even the hangar cats want more of WIX........

Gary, if you could get her to take care of all your parts & supplies ordering as well as your emails and posts, just think of the time you'd be able to devote to ol' Lil!

[retroaviation]

Heck, that stupid cat is afraid of it's own shadow (which it is named, by the way). I imagine the dial tone alone would scare her if she tried to make a call to order parts. And the other cat......well, sleep is much more important to it than airplanes.

Gary

[Beachy]

Heck, that stupid cat is afraid of it's own shadow (which it is named, by the way). I imagine the dial tone alone would scare her if she tried to make a call to order parts. And the other cat......well, sleep is much more important to it than airplanes.

Gary

Yeah, well, at least Mosquito keeps an eye on your work, so he's not completely useless!

[Randy Wilson]

Gary - what, no baby owl pictures?

Randy

[TimAPNY]

Three pages of posts and not one picture of a pigeon (aka Sky Rat)? I can't believe it! Nothing better than getting crapped on while working late in the hanger or coming in the hanger in the morning to find out some individual of questionable judgement the night before left the canopy or access panel open for every Sky Rat to crap in the previous night

Tim

[retroaviation]

Well, these are no pidgeons, but they still have the ability to leave quite a mess.

About a year ago, we had a pair of owls living in the hangar here in Midland. One day we noticed that the momma owl had broken her wing. We called the proper authorities out and they took her away. So I got curious to see what their nest looked like and crawled up to the top of the hangar to check it out. What I found was six eggs and no momma to take care of them. The owl expert said that the daddy owl would take care of them for a little while, but wouldn't be able to keep them all fed once they got bigger (which didn't take long). So about every other day, I'd go up to the top of the hangar to check on the progress. Here's how it all worked out.........

Here are the eggs as I found them.........



Only a couple of days later, you can see where one of them started hatching........



.....And daddy owl wasn't too sure what to think of me up there (you can just barely see him peering around the beam in this picture). It was eerie seeing him look at me. It was like he was sizing me up and thinking, "Okay fat boy, I think I can take you."



But the daddy owl never did anything about me checking on the chicks and they started popping out as each day went by........





Eventually, they got too big for the daddy owl to take care of and we had to take them down for the owl expert lady to continue raising. Ugly little fellas, huh?.......



We've had owls come by the hangar ever since though. This one was another little guy that actually ended up in a trash can of all places. He didn't seem too happy at first when we started trying to save him, but when I look at this picture, all I can think is he's actually wanting to sing that ol' song that used to be on the Warner Brothers cartoons with the french......."Hellooo my baaaby, hellooo my darlin', hellooo my ragtime gaaaal..."



Okay, enough silliness for now.

Gary

[Beachy]

Those photos are INCREDIBLE, Gary!!!! Thanks for sharing them!!!!!! Are any of them still around?

[retroaviation]

We have a couple of full grown owls that still call this place home. But to be perfectly honest, the novelty has worn off and I'm ready for them to leave. You wouldn't believe the size and quantity of owl poop.

[Beachy]

We have a couple of full grown owls that still call this place home. But to be perfectly honest, the novelty has worn off and I'm ready for them to leave. You wouldn't believe the size and quantity of owl poop.

Do they bother the cats?