Meet our Feline Fur Babies on the Farm

You can’t have a farm without cats, right?

I’ve always thought myself a dog person.  Growing up we had cats on the farm, but I really didn’t pay much attention to them.  Most weren’t friendly.  I always had a dog.

Now that I’m older, I’ve come to like the independent nature of a cat.  I love being able to snuggle with the cats when I’m around, but it is also nice to know you can leave on vacation and they are perfectly content hanging around the barns and house.

I may be a bit bias, but our cats are awesome!

My earliest memory of having cats growing up was a pair of black cats, we named ketchup and mustard. LOL!  I have no idea where we got those names for black cats.

But anyway, I used to walk around our farm with Mustard draped around my shoulders like a fur stole.  That poor cat just loved it!

We got our first two cats as a family, Skippy and Jones, when we lived in Homer, AK. Our little barn that doubled as a chicken coop was getting overrun with mice.

The intent that these guys would stay in the barn only lasted for a few months.  They quickly learned to lounge in the house during the day and be loved on by the kids and hunt outside during the night.

These two cats are the most talkative things.  I’ve been told it’s because they are half Siamese.

They meow back to you when you call their name, they love to follow us through the fields, ride in the tractors, and practically get smothered everyday by the two littlest.  They could easily scratch the kids or get up and leave, but they just lay there purring.

When we settled on the farm in Oregon, we added another cat to the farm.

Her name is Bashful.  She is a small framed calico and loves the kids just as much as the boys.

This spring, Bashful had her first litter of kittens.

The kids were excited to name them.

Bashful didn’t get much of a break before she was visited by a stray and will be having another litter of kittens here shortly.

 We were hoping to get her to the vet to get spayed before it happened.

Rietta, our oldest daughter had a dose of motherhood early this summer.

Her Gram’s cat had kittens, but did not take care of them.

Rietta jumped in and started bottle feeding them.

She feed those little things every two hours, even through the night for almost two weeks. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it.

But it was definitely not from her lack of love and determination.

We don’t think they got enough, if any, colostrum to give them a good start.

I’m sure she’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Do you have feline fur babies?

Or is a dog better suited for you?