The agreement when we moved into the farm house is that we would take responsibility to feed the cat. The cat is a stray that showed up on the farm awhile back. The stray cat was severely abused before it was dumped onto the farm. Consequently, she is afraid of people; but willing to come to the deck for her nightly feeding.
James has taken on the responsibility of making sure the cat gets fed each night. He has made it his challenge to see if someday she will allow him to hold her and pet her. He is hoping that she will be able to get comfortable with him and to realize that not everyone is mean.
The cat comes to the call of - "here kitty,kitty." James has been feeding and sitting out there with her until she is done eating. We are seeing progress in her fearfulness; because James has even been able to pet her a little while she is eating her food.
We assume that she wants to be around people; but fear keeps her from getting too close; for she sits by the deck and watches Rob as he reads at night in his chair. Come dusk we find her sitting by the door watching us be a family inside her looking glass. It is with smiles that we sit and watch the cat watch us. We talk to her and tell her that she is a good kitty.
Such was the case the other night. James had fed her and we had been watching as she sat on the deck and watched the family go through our evening together. She would watch us as we had our family time together. As the night went on we turned off the deck light and left the cat sitting by the door contentedly looking in. When the clock hit ten we told the kids that it was time for them to head to bed.
Rachel leaned down to kiss me good night and then looked over at the door. In a sweet and nurturing tone she said, "Oh, is the cat out there?" We both looked over at the window at the same time to lovingly look at the kitty. I smiled and we looked into the dark at the movement we saw on the other side of the door.
"Yep, that's the ca..." the words kind of hung in the air as we watched the form of something moving outside; but saw as the form moved a very long, thin, smooth tail followed slowly behind it.
It was Rachel who said, this time the nurturing tone had turned to disdain, "that ain't no cat! Our cat does not have a tail!"
That last statement is true. The cat does not have a tail. Her missing tail reminds us each time we see her that someone was not nice to her and she will forever have scars because of their cruelty. So, as we watched what was clearly a tail moving on the deck we started recoiling from the window. Rachel spoke again, "that's a rat out there. That is the tail of a rat!"
I ran over to the door and quickly turned on the light. The cat was out there; but she was sitting on top of the railing of the deck. An opossum was claiming the deck as his and looking for food. The face of an opossum does not look like a rat; but I must say that the tail of an opossum and the tail of a rat share similar characteristics. Now, I do not know if you have ever seen an opossum up close; but our whole family viewed him that night. An opossum can be described as follows: Fat body, cone shaped nose and a long, thin, hairless tail. For the record, I want everyone to know that I think these creatures are UGLY. The look like their Mama's beat them with an ugly stick. They're *that* ugly!
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After the rodent realized that the food was gone - he was gone too. We thankfully watched him waddle away - carrying his tail behind him. After he was good and gone the cat took up his watch at the door. We kissed the kids and sent them to bed; then Rob and I pulled out our books and sat and read by the lamp light contented to let a cat take comfort in our presence.
We also have decided to name "the" cat - She is now called "Oreo" and we are hoping that someday soon we will have pictures of a cat that is being held and petted and realizing that she is loved.
I have decided that while life in the country is quiet - it is never boring.
Thanks for stopping by, I am so glad you did.
Blessings,
~Martie
