Cat House
Sweet Pea is the first that I saved when I moved out to this farm. Hubs was on a fishing trip the week I found her, which was a good thing since he thought cats belonged in barns rather than houses. We had numerous ferrel cats that lived in the barn, but I couldn’t ever get my hands any of them to do much with them. I was outside planting a couple rose bushes in front of the barn when I heard the mews of kittens. Here Pea and two others had fallen out of the hay loft. I’m guessing they were looking for their mom in search of food. They weren’t very old, since their eyes were still closed and they looked really tough, which broke my heart.
Pea and her sister Bella were loudly telling anyone who would listed they were unhappy. The third of the tribe wasn’t doing so well. I set them in the sun and just rubbed them down trying to warm them up and quiet them down. I knew they needed food, and I had nothing that would work, plus we live 20 miles from anywhere. I got them nestled up in a box and tucked them away and ran into the vets in town.
When I got to the vets, the gal on duty told me I was wasting my time since kittens born so late in the season rarely made it. She also told me that bottle feeding rarely worked, and that it would be more humane to bring them in and let them go…. To which I told her I wasn’t doing that. I knew my chances and if they were suffering I’d bring them in, but I wasn’t giving up. A phone call from hubs that evening told me about the same thing, but I told him tough luck… I’m bullheaded and I figured he’d come around.
By the time I got home the worst off of the three had given up. I figured that would happen, but it still wasn’t anything I wanted to see that day. Luckily two of them were strong enough to keep fighting. I made up bottles, and tried to feed them, which was a challenge in itself. They were so mouthy! I didn’t know much about babies in general, but I knew I couldn’t force feed them in fear of drowning them, so I spent hours getting a tiny bottle in each of them. It got easier from there, once they figured out what they needed to do. For the most part.
They were fun to raise, and Pea is still with us 7 years later. Bella only lived about a year and a half. Of coarse it was too short of a time, but both hubs and I were happy to have her! Luckily hubs did come around, because there were more on the way….
Jackson is all my mothers fault. Although I did save him indirectly, my mother is to blame for him being on our farm. She saved him first. I saved him second.
My mom was out on a gravel road trying to make a phone call on her cell phone. Like I’ve said, I live in rural america, and sometimes you get better reception out of town rather than in town. So, it was summer and she was sitting in the car making her phone call and she started to hear a cat crying.
My mother is a huge softy when it comes to animals… When she got out of the car and started calling for it. Of coarse when Jack came out of a cornfield looking like death warmed over, he was coming home with her… I don’t blame her, as he looked awful! The bad part was I was asked if I would take him to the vet because she thought he had been pecked by birds or something worse.
Jacks head was totally bald in between his ears. His nose was scabbed over, and his face was missing his whiskers, his shoulder blades and back was missing hair, and his paws were bloody and missing most of the claws on his front feet.
I brought him into the vet the next day, had him tested to make sure he was healthy, except for the obvious. The vet told me he was healthy, but no birds had ever bothered him… The vet said she was 100% sure he was thrown from a vehicle.
Ugly as ever, Jack came home with me to heal, and even though hubs once again put up a fuss, loves him just as much…. Jack now sleeps on my head nightly when I’m home….
Sass was another barn baby. Another left by his mother. Hubs and I had been outside working and we could hear him crying in the barn. Looks were exchanged, we tried to ignore, and keep busy hoping the mother would return… Funny thing was, the kitten didn’t quit crying, and hubs was off doing something, so I figured I could sneak into the barn and see what was going on, but who was already heading up the stairs into the hay loft when I walked into the barn? Hubs.
We found Sassy, whom hubs swore was a female… We brought her in the house, introduced her to Jack and Pea and started bottle feeding once again. Sassy was brought to the vet, NEUTERED, and came home Sass… He’s our biggest boy, and the three get along very well.
It taken a few years, but I have weeded out the ferrel cats from our barn. Spayed and neutered the animals we have and the barn is now home to chickens and my quarter horse when she’s home. We have healthy animals now, and I try to keep it that way.












