Stubby

We were in search of outdoor “barn” cats to help control the gopher problem, as well as mice which the former owners had a problem with. Since the barn will be our home, we’ve set up a cat shelter attached to the nearby shed.

This very young mother cat and her 2 feral kittens were adopted through the Next Door app; a lady found her but couldn’t keep her. She called her Stubby because half of her tail was missing — she wags her tail like a puppy when excited!

Stubby was once cared for — she is very open to being petted or picked up and often purrs. But the 10 week old kittens were totally feral, needing to be caught in a trap to be moved to our small farm.

I nicknamed the black kitten with white markings Patches and the all black kitten Fraidy Cat because it hid all the time — quickly shortened to Fred. This caused lots of laughter when our granddaughter declared “I am NOT explaining why I bring “Fred” in to be spayed”! We don’t know what sex either kitten is because they stayed hidden; Mikala works at a vet clinic where we had Stubby spayed.

Sadly, Fred disappeared soon after arrival; we had only seen him once. Then this past week Patches also disappeared, possibly by hiding under the truck’s hood as it was driven off. We were trying to be careful about checking before driving, but it’s easy to miss such a wee mostly-black kitten.

Stubby has settled right in, patrolling the pastures and checking in with the goats. She visits the porch to join Bill drinking his morning coffee. And this morning, Bardie MacRuadh and Scottie Dubh got to know her through the back screendoor.