Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Thing About Barn Cats

Barn cats are unusual creatures. Even more so than ordinary house cats. Much more haughty as a rule. But there are still those who do the weaving between your legs act when you walk out the back door. Love you when you feed them. Ignore you when you don’t. Some won’t come near, no matter what, but will hover in the background, just in case you should toss a scrap of fat from a roast their way. Nothing fazes them.
Right now, the current batch of barn kitties are making their way out and about in the real world. Erect tails, fuzzy hair and those enchanting blueberry eyes.
Old Mama Cat lost two at birth, but has 2 more in the back room behind some boxes, a deep yellow “Garfield” color, and a gray tortoise color. (Keep in mind we have a drafty old farm house with nooks and crannies allowing cats access to the warm basement in winter, as well as the back room, if the door to basement is left unhooked.) They, as well as all the other kittens I’ve seen this year, have a slightly longer than normal coat. One cat, having her second batch, chose the cavity between the outer and inner barn walls to give birth to her five. The only way out was at the top of the inner wall, 8 foot up. Hubby finally took pity on that mama and lassoed them each inside the wall and brought them out for her. Another fairly wild calico chose the basement wood-box to hide her brood. They also have been venturing out through a cat sized crack in the door from the landing to the outside.
All of these cats are descendants of Highway, a yellow half grown stray I adopted when doing roadside cleanup many years ago through the “Adopt A Highway” project. (I adopted Highway---yeah, I know, lame joke.)
And even though my 12 pound poodle thinks he needs to protect me from each of them, I love them all.

2 comments:

Angie J said...

It's been awhile since I've had an indoor/outdoor kitty. I'd love to have some chicken kitties, but the chickens may decide ooh look at that funny looking chicken and peck them to death.

Gotta share this one with Sheila she'll get a kick out of it.

Christylea said...

Oh, sometimes I miss all those cats. Different families, lots of colors and fun names. Good times.