84-Lancastar Farming, Saturday, April 18. 1998
On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other
hazards)
Joyce Bupp
It's a war zone out here,
Guerrillas spy out in the
bushes. Attacks wait outside
the front door. And it's hardly
safe to walk around the old
barn.
But, then, that is the perfect
spot for battle maneuvers. Lots
of nooks and crannies for fox
hole-type hideouts. Rugged
attack sites among straw mow
fortifications. Temporary battle
shelters behind sandbags....er,
feedbags.
Luckily, despite the continu
ing confrontations, there have
been no casualties. But the fur
does fly on occasion.
That, I suppose, is only to be
expected during the annual ter
ritorial battles among the farm's
cats.
Cat squabbles have been rel
atively low key around here the
last few years, due to a -very
small number of cats on the
property. Two new additions - a
couple of regular visitors - have
escalated the squirmishes this
year.
One probable reason is our
out-of-whack ratio of three male
cats to the one female residing
around in the old bam.
Long-time resident Pest, the
old gray-and-white tomcat, is
senior of our feline set. Though
he once was always underfoot
hence his name-Pest now most
ly just hangs out around the calf
bam waiting for the morning
and evenings fills of the milk
bowl. Despite his laid-back per
sonality, Pest does get territorial
when it comes to competitors
moving in,
Which is part of the reason
Midnight, more recent addition
to the cat residency, cowers
under the heifers' feed trough
most of the time.
Midnight turned up one
Sunday evening last fall, injured
and half-starved, surrendering
to the enticements of bologna
and cautious petting. Several
weeks of TLC (catfood, milk, a
topical antibiotic and human
attention) plumped and healed
the beautiful shiny-black cat,
but his checkered past and
apparent abandonment left deep
psy-cat-logical scars. Although
Midnight loves being petted, he
prefers it on his terms, and no
cuddling, please. He's extreme
ly ware of other cats, especially
Pest in one of his more aggres
sive moods. Though Midnight
finally did settle into being a
bam cat, he's generally in hid
ing. And, the wild calls him
back for occasional several-day
forays to the woods and mead
ows.
Even more recent arrival is
Butch, the charcoal-and-beige
tabby donated by friends. Like
Tigger of Winnie-the-Pooh fame,
Butch bounces around the farm
with great exuberance, turning
up under my feet regardless of
where I am or what I'm doing
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outside. His bad habit of using
one's jeans legs as a climbing
tree is under treatment. Few
things intimidate Butch, save
for housecat Monk, who despises
all other cats and hisses Butch
off "her" porch.
Into this array, plunk one
hulking, aggressive, stray
orange cat who skulks around
the bam, zips through the back
yard and occasionally scares the
daylights out of me when I
stumble across him snoozing in
the straw mow.
The upstart of all this is that
one never knows which feline
will come streaking around a
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corner in pursuit of an interlop
er, or s how long the growling,
yowling and/or howling will per
sist.
Blissfully unaware of this is
Calico, the young multi-colored
female nonchalant about her
role in keeping the cat pecking
order in disarray. Mostly she
just snoozes, curled up in the
hay of one of the weaned heifer
pens.
I picked her up this morning.
And noticed that she seems to be
gaining weight.
We may have an interesting
looking litter of kittens upcom
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bobcat