Mus'ing

Down on the farm cat story

  The other day I read where someone had asked an author to write a cat story, so she did. And it was very good.





  Looking back in time I realized I had a cat story, and so here go's.





                              First with the setting.





  I grew up with five sisters, milking cows. Dad said; To keep us out of trouble. Thinking back; He just wanted another





source of income.





    Any way, when you milk cows, you've got cats. The cats were always in the allyway, that ran through the





center of the barn, with stanchions for the cows on both sides. The cats were constantly begging for milk and we would





pour some milk into their dishes when we were done milking a cow.[We also loved to spray the cats with a stream of milk





and see how high we could get them to stand on their hind feet to reach the milk, or even spray each other across the





allyway.]





    Above was a hay loft, that in the spring of the year was always about empty except for the back wall.





    Once school was out for the summer we had time to look for new baby kittens that the mother cats were having. Up





in the hay loft was one of their favorite spots to have a nest. One spring in between two square bales, was a nest with





nine baby kittens of all colors. [ white, gray, yellow and calico]





    A few days after we found the babies, we saw two calico sisters nursing them and sharing in the mothering duties.





It was food for thought. Two sisters, loving each other and each others babies enough that it didn't matter who nursed





on who. Then a week later we saw the other side of the cat kingdom.





  A roving TOM CAT came in and picked a fight with the tom cat that was the father. After beating up the home cat, the





new tom cat killed all the babies because he could.





    Mom explained it to use like this; We're not animals. We have laws. Our laws are based on the idea that all men are





equal, and are to be treated like we would like to be treated. Respect your neighbors rights or you will be held





accountable.





        What a lesson down on the farm. Evil verses good. Love verses hate.





    And I've never liked the phrase; He's out tom catting around.