Saturday, June 30, 2012

"Yeah, or something did."

So, a few weeks back I was visited by a miracle cat who appeared (miraculously) on Memorial Saturday when I had my grandbabies to entertain.
That cat was a lot of help.
It didn't change diapers or anything but it kept the kids entertained for a long time.
We fed it leftovers to keep it hanging around so the kids would be able to stare at it.

So, now the 'miracle cat' is hanging around a lot.
We believe it is our neighbor's cat. We think it rode here in my cowboy's pickup somehow.

Since it's tamed down we could catch it and return it to our neighbors.
Except some facts:
It's female (we assume that because it's calico)
It's spring

ergo
It must've had kittens because that's what cats do in the spring. We haven't seen them but still...........it stands to reason.

So, just in case.......we can't return her because her kittens would starve to death. Kittens are born here sometimes on the old ranch, but we pay no attention to them. They're more feral than tame so we don't really get involved.

Still, we don't want to STARVE BABIES TO DEATH BY STEALING THEIR MOTHER!
Egad!
(*Note---the neighbors are fully aware of this situation and aren't pushing for their cat back....go figure!)
So, we can't return the cat until the Kitten Question is answered.

So, anyway, regardless of the Kitten Question, my cowboy the other day said to me, "Get some cat food."
I said, "No, you give a cat a serving of cat food it eats for a day. You teach a cat to catch mice or starve it eats for a lifetime."

But then later, in Decatur
(wow, that's a rhyme)
Later in Decatur I weakened and bought some dog food because Decatur didn't have cat food. (small town)

I actually phoned my cowboy and he reminded me of my cruel plans to make the cat hunt or die. Honestly, it's not THAT cruel........................if the cat can hunt.

But anyway, we debated nonexistant cat food vs existant dog food and I got the dog food.

So, then, I put out a tiny dish of dog cat food and my cowboy, who rarely listens to me (go figure) put out a larger dish of dog cat food because he didn't know I'd already put some out.

That was three days ago.

This morning I looked out and saw BOTH DISHES EMPTY.

I said, (cheerfully for a woman who's not of a generous heart in the feeding of semi-wild pets who have moved into my home without permission) "The Cat Found the FOOD!"

To which my cowboy said, "Yeah, or something did."

Something? What something?
Like skunks and possums and raccoons? Like rats and weasels and...and...and MOUNTAIN LIONS??

(you'd never guess it but I have a really terrific imagination...thus the novel writing!)

All of a sudden I remember that my policy of not feeding cats had a few more aspects to it than just being philosophically inclinded to teach a cat to hunt.

Thank you for letting me share this slice of life.


Mary Connealy
http://www.maryconnealy.com

12 comments:

Rachelle said...

Mary, you are a hoot! Good luck with the cat.

Mary Connealy said...

:) This is ALL TRUE.

Mary Connealy said...

Even the fear of Mountain Lions. Though we have never seen one. Still, there have been RUMORS!

Michelle Gregory said...

ooo. we're going to have mountain lions, coyotes, wolves, etc when we move outside of town next month. and maybe a stray cat or two.

Mary Connealy said...

If we find the kittens I can mail you a sack of them. Let me know.

Mary Cline said...

You know just the other day on Seekerville you mentioned mouse sightings. I wanted to ask you if you had a cat but I didn't want to get off subject as I am wont to do. Well now I know, you sort of do, or maybe a half dozen.

I hate mountain lions, usually I am a wild life lover but I know what cats are like and mountain lions are like that only big. Nope don't like em.

Mocha with Linda said...

You can make watching paint dry sound funny.

Oh, I hope the "something did" wasn't a raccoon. They have babies too. And I hope they didn't have babies in your attic. And desert them. And they die. Which you won't know until they start stinking.

That's happened to us. Twice. And we don't even live in the country!

(Twice is just the dead baby raccoons. I've lost count of the dead adult raccoons my man has fetched out of the attic. We've actually made it a whole year now without any. A miracle.)

Mary Connealy said...

Wow, Linda, sweetie, that is a really sad story full of death.

I'm a little weepy.

Also, now it's late and I'm tempted to go and peek at the refilled cat's dish and see if anything....BIG is eating out of it.

I should take a gun but instead I might take my camera.

And isn't that just the kind of thing that should be carved into my tombstone???

Michelle Gregory said...

or maybe they could carve, "This is just the kind of story she would have written."

a sackful of kittens sounds like too many.

Tonja said...

We feed our cats in a little box on our deck so the dogs can't eat the cat food and twice now there have been possums not cats in the box. Go figure-possums like cat food just like cats and dogs :)

Anonymous said...

We used to keep our animals' food on our carport in rubbermaid tubs bungeecorded. However, the local racoons decided they were going to keep trying the boxes, so they tore one of them down the side. I finally wisened up and put the food in the laundry room. Now, almost nightly, the racoons come and eat the dog's leftover food. I know I shouldn't, but I enjoy watching them out the window.

Let us know if you find kittens.
God Bless,
Kim in NC

Mary Connealy said...

We got over being charmed by raccoons the first time they stripped our sweet corn patch bare. The brats.
It's like they threw a KEGGER in my sweet corn patch and partied until the corn ran out. Teenage Raccoons, I suspect, called all their friends.