Farm Life: Three Mousekateer’s

No, this is not about Disney does farming in the 1950’s.  Farms, especially barns, attract rodents.  Just too much good eats to stay away, and lots of hiding places for homes.  Rodents tend to live in boom-bust cycles, with this year being a boom year.  Thus, farms need barn cats.  Consider the other option: snakes or poison.  Not a good idea to put out something that kills rodents where other animals live.  That leaves snakes.  We’re having a boom year for them too.  Fortunately, no venomous snakes in sight.

We have had 3 barn cats for about 8 or 9 years now.  One wandered off into the woods, either finding better room and board at a neighbors, or off to cat-eternity.  A second withered with age.  That left us with the most friendly cat, but least aggressive about rodents.

Time to restock with barn kittens.  Someone mentioned recently that a neighborhood cat had a litter.  Their 3-year-old had picked out one of the four to keep.  We went by last week to pick up the other three.  They have been living in the milking parlor since Friday.  Yesterday, two of them were exploring the top of the door with plans for jumping into the rest of the barn.  Guess you could say they are settling in as our local mousers, or mousekateers.

The 3-year-old had already named them: Socks for the black-and-white kitten; Tigger for the striped kitten; and, Trixie for the grey kitten.