Musings of an Ordinary Person in Recovery: My Farm Cats

I broke my streak. I didn't get anything posted yesterday and up until then, I hadn't missed a day in March. Shucks.

I've been thinking about all my critters. In particular, the outside cats. We have roughly 5 outdoor cats. One is a feral tomcat who lives in the garage, and we also adopted Smokie, the feral little female who has tamed down considerably since she's been here. She's been letting me pet her for quite some time while she eats. At first it was only if she didn't look at me, she'd let me pet her while she snarfed down food like she might never get to eat again. And she'd arch her back and make happy cat noises as I ran my hand down her back. But as soon as she saw my hand she would bolt off the table where the cats eat and wait for me to leave. She knows my voice and likes it, she will talk to me and the sound of her meow goes from angry/anguished to softer, friendlier in response to my "Hi Smokie kitty, it's just me girl...." For a couple of weeks now I've been purposely putting my hand by her face so she sees it's me petting her and so my scent fills her nostrils and she can associate the smell with the strokes she likes so much. For weeks I've thought, "I wonder if she'll ever let me pet her when she isn't eating or if she'll always have some distrust and disdain and stay just a little wild forever?" And today the magic happened. I got to pet her. A lot. My mouth formed a wide O shape as I stroked her with disbelief that she was actually letting me touch her! Without food as a distraction. It felt like real progress.

Our other female kitty that lives outside is Sapphire. She is a bonus cat also. She just showed up in the garage. She started letting the handyman pet her. And his helper. And other workers we had out. Men. She started out by warming up to men who came on our place. Then one day, out of the blue, she decided to jump in my lap and snuggle with me. And she has been super tame ever since then. It was never a long, drawn out ordeal like it's been with Smokie. We've been here 3 1/2 years now, and Sapphire showed up the first winter. She she's been here, and all lovey-dovey for three years already.

We have a cat named Basil, a big, neutered tabby boy. Basil was one of the kittens our other momma cat had. For awhile we had a LOT of outdoor cats. I think nine. But we gave some to another farm and we were down to three: Sapphire, Basil, and Pumpkin. Then the feral tabbies started hanging around. I don't suppose that we'll ever tame the big tomcat. Partly because I have no interest in taming him down. I still tell him that he doesn't live here and to leave my cats alone, and he still waits until I've gone inside for the night to come and eat.

And then there's Pumpkin, who I still call "Big Daddy Pumpkin" even though he's been neutered for a year now. He's gotten fuller, and bigger since he's been fixed, and he was a big boy when he was still a tom. But he was coming home all beat up and injured all too often. So he's fixed now and living the good life. Pumpkin is, of course, an orange tabby. He has gorgeous blue/green eyes and a while groucho marx style mustache. Today my Big-Daddy-Pumpkin (yes, I usually say it like it's all one word) isn't home. He didn't come home last night and hasn't been home today. I'm super worried about him. Since he's been neutered, he doesn't go out cattin' around for days on end and he hasn't really been gone.... at all. When he hears my car come down the road, he comes running. He'd never miss a meal. So I'm really worried. Him and the big feral tom are both gone. I'm worried the coyotes or owls got them. They might be too big for the owls, they are some big boys.

Those damn owls. That's another story. If you've read my blog, you know about Maddie and the owl(s). I used to think owls were majestic and magical and mystical. Now I just call them "those damn owls." I am not in love with them anymore.