I guess I'm just a cat farmer now

It was very hard for me to get rid of my last Jersey cow.  It left me feeling sad.  At least I still had the chickens, and consoled myself with that idea for a while.  But I never was chicken-crazy the way some folks are, definitely not in the way I have always felt about Jersey cows.  When I travel, the chickens are just something for somebody else to take care of:  they have to shut them up at night so varmints don't get them, gather the eggs, make sure they have food and water.  Not hard work, but the relatives around here all put in long hours at jobs in the city and it just makes one extra thing for them to do when they get home.  

I put the hens on Craigslist last weekend, but only got one call.  That guy thought he wanted them, but he found something closer to home.  I had them priced cheaper than any other chickens on Craigslist, and knew I'd sell them eventually.

Yesterday a local man on Facebook mentioned he wanted to add a few hens to his flock; I told him I had some for sale, and he came and got them.  I don't think I'll miss them too much, except for having the fresh eggs.  A next-door neighbor has hens, so perhaps I can buy eggs from her.  I sent her a message on Facebook, inquiring.  

We still have the Holstein steers we're raising for beef (they'll be butchered in October), and I have four barn cats.  That's the extent of my livestock, unless you want to count the horses that belong to Cora's parents.  I have all the advantages of horses with them here, and very few of the disadvantages.  I can't ride these days, but I can pet them if I've a mind to, and get a whiff of them (I love the smell of horses).  I can watch them running in the pasture.  Horses are some of God's most beautiful work.  

Lacking other critters to chore after, I have become more of a cat person than I used to be.  They eat in the barn, but they lounge on my front and back porches.  By the time I go outside to feed them each morning, they are waiting impatiently to escort me to the barn, as though I couldn't find my way without them.  

Mama Kitty left when I brought in the youngsters in mid-September.  She hated them, even ran when she saw them approaching.  Sometimes I wouldn't see her for a week or two at a time.  It's just in the last several days she decided to come home and stay.  Now she will even go in the barn to eat with the others, but everybody has to eat from a separate dish!  It's ridiculous.  I never thought I'd be chambermaid to a bunch of cats, letting them tell me what to do.  

I took about 15 pictures of Mama Kitty this morning while she was eating, but she has never been photogenic.  If she isn't eating, she will often run from the camera.  So what you see is what you get.

   

See how she deliberately looks away from the camera?  She always does this, whether she is eating or not.  

Anyway, I'm glad to have her back.  She's been a good, faithful mouser ever since she happened onto our property.

I will eventually get a dog, I imagine.  I would love to have a German Shepherd, but I don't want one in the house.  Cliff and I have discussed using an abandoned pen for a dog, letting it out, of course, when we are outside.  We'll see how I feel about this in a year.  Maybe the right dog will find me at the right time, like Mama Kitty did.

Peace.