IN MEMORY OF

This picture is one of the barn cats who used to reside in our barn.  She would let you touch her as long as there was food in front of her.  She was getting to the point she would let us casually touch her when we were walking by.  This only took us 5 years to cultivate, lol. 

Life is always renewing.  We never realized how attached we had become to our "multitudes" of barn cats.  All of which were varying degrees of friendliness.  All knew the names we gave them.  They would come to their name singularly, and if we sang the meow song from the meow mix commercial they would all come.

We had been wondering why some of the young cats weren't coming to the feed dish when we were there.  We figured they were out hunting the mice, snakes, lizards and other crawling creatures (we were very fortunate our cats didn't seem to go for the birds). We only found the remains of two birds this summer.

One Morning our beautiful Russian Blue type male didn't come when we called him.  His name was "Mr. White Gloves".  For two reasons;  he had 4 white feet and he was so fastidious.  He was a dumped cat who had been with us for 4 years.  He protected all his harem from any visiting marauders.  From the time he was dumped he never left the area around the barn.  So when he didn't show for breakfast we figured he was either sleeping it off, or "Catting around".  After all it was summer and he had a harem of at least 15.  Two days went by and he never returned.  On that second day my husband saw the first coyote we had seen since the subdivision went in 5 years ago.  We knew why the cats seemed to be disappearing. 

Our Priscilla was the last to disappear.  We now only have one female gray cat who is very shy and she has one baby left from this spring.  Hunny has yet to see the baby.  Everyone always laughed at us feeding and caring for our wild cats.  They never understood the benefits they provided.  We didn't have a barn which smelled like mice.  The Canvases, garden blankets, and burlap stored there never had holes chewed in them.  I never had to worry about snakes in the barn (copperheads were prolific this year). 

They didn't seem to bother the critters in the garden.  I still have garter snakes and lizards there and lots of frogs in my little pools.  Boy were they excellent grasshopper hunters.

I don't know what we will do about a new papa in the barn.  I always worry about cats coming around because they might have disease.  That was what was so nice about Mr. White Gloves.  He kept the vagrants away.  We have been very lucky since 1975 to have had strong healthy felines (if you can't catch them you can't vaccinate them).  No one has left our farm due to disease.  They have all lived long lives usually over 15 years each and some have lived for 25+ years.

We have two cats in the work shop of the barn (if cats become friendly they get neutered and shots).  "My Friend" and "Grayling" are so terrified of what's been happening they will not go out to play.

We sure miss the commotion in the barn.  Wish the coyotes could have caught the ground hog who is eating any vegetables I plant.  Now he is too big to fit in a large Raccoon trap and he has learned how to take the bait without getting caught.

Thank you for visiting.  

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(Credit is given for items not my own)

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New articles on quilts made for recent weddings.