Gratitude!

I find that even though many animals here on the farm seem “expendable” it doesn’t seem to stop us from personifying them. This chicken is bossy, that cat is rude, the dog is always grumpy, yadda, yadda. Which brings me to gratitude.

I haven’t written much about the daily saga surrounding the plethora of cats around here. There aren’t actually that many but it keeps expanding. Eventually Other and I will be those people you see on pet hoarders trying to figure out how 492 cats are living in the shed.

Currently there are two fixed females (Shirley and Beulah) and two fixed toms (Gene and Patty) with one REALLY mean tom making the rounds every few days (Shelly). Before anyone brings it up, I should say that I already know that some of them have names of the wrong gender and most of them have names that you would find on the roster at the nursing home. I should tell you that Other is in charge of naming the cats. It seems to be a point of pride that these names cause embarrassment when telling outsiders about them. Did I mention we are getting another this weekend and her name has already been slated as Doris. Yup. You won’t hear me refer to her by name down at the Co-op while getting hog feed.

Anywho, the weather here turned “brisk” later today. Currently is it blowing 40 mph from the north and snowing to beat the band. It wasn’t bad early on, but when the wind changed directions things went south. Literally. We aren’t predicted to get a lot of snow, but right about now I am wishing that I had put the chains on the plowing tractor. Oh well.

When I got home from town today I locked up the chickens, lit the stove in the dog house, and built a substantial blaze in the wood stove in the garage for said kitties. I know, they are barn cats. It just seems that since the stove is there and the wood is stacked I should stoke it up for them. It didn’t take too long for the thermometer in the garage to read 78 degrees. Not bad for a freestanding garage built in 1930. I wish the house was that warm.

Here is where the gratitude plays in. As I am standing in there trying to decide whether to take off my coat the two toms enjoying the heat started fighting. Initially, I calmly reminded them that I could be in the house like all of the town folks, but I was working in the nastiness to show them some love. It quickly turned into raised-voice preaching with an occasional thump on the top of the head. Dumb cats.

I just wonder about all of the things we do for the comfort of these animals. No doubt there were many chickens, cats, cattle, and hogs that survived the blizzards of 1912 without these conveniences. That must be why their playfulness is such a pisser - I think they should be throwing themselves at my feet and scratching out a love note with their sharpened claws. Maybe I will remind them of that when I go out to load the stove before I go to bed.

Here’s hoping you get all the snow you hoped for but no too much. We certainly don’t need 18 feet for goodness same. We aren’t in Alaska…

TJR