Written by Mrs. Wordwright
We own no animals but we have a backyard with wildlife and domestic cats that visit regularly. The cats probably come because of the birds – I see them “eyeing” the birds from time to time. Seems our backyard sanctuary has been the “National Cat Highway” for years. They come from the front yard, walk cross-wise either to the back fence or from over the back yard. Why our place is so well liked by cats I’ll never know. A few wanted to stay, two did. I make the mistake of talking to them but have since tried to stop that.
There are a few who sneak through, acting like they are intruding on property that isn’t theirs. We have even had to bury a couple; one got caught in the [criss-cross] lattice around our back porch. (It died before we discovered its predicament – our noses knew it first.)
I mentioned other wild life but the birds are most plentiful. We do not have fancy feeders nor birdbaths. Our feathered friends eat bread on the ground and use a former oil-drain pan which we keep filled with fresh water – they think it’s a great birdbath and it just sits in the grass. We may not have exotic birds but we enjoy the sparrows and the grackles who like to “dip their bread” into the water before eating it. We laugh at the starlings and call them “junk food junkies” because they will eat anything! Rye bread, though, does not seem a favorite for any of the birds.
Here are a few other creatures that have frequented our backyard–then back to my cat story. We’ve had bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, a vole (a little mouse or mole-looking creature) and on occasions maybe the wild, wild creatures like opossums, ground hog (with four babies trailing behind), a raccoon, an owl and even a hawk stopped by twice.
Here is the most recent cat episode. There’s a beautiful gray-black patterned cat (sort of a wild cat) that frequently wanders by. What neighbor he belongs to I haven’t found out.
We have a building where my husband Bill stores lumber and a lot more. He often gets something out of it, leaves the door open and takes that something to the garage shop or in the driveway. This happened on a Monday or Tuesday. I saw an all black cat go into the building and watched to see that he came out. He did. Building was closed and all’s well.
I began hearing a meowing sound. It would be loud sometimes and seemed to stop when we went out to locate it. We looked in the bushes, under the building, in back of it and even up in our walnut tree near the building. Never entered our minds to look in the building. I continued to hear the meowing, wishing it would stop.
Sunday morning after church our neighbor called saying she and her daughter were in their backyard (which joins ours) and heard a sound of a cat meowing inside our building. Bill went out to look, opened the door and there was that pretty kitty, at the door. The cat was afraid to come out so I asked Bill to move and go fill the watering pan with fresh water. We continued to coax the cat to come out. His voice was stuck on one sound, meow, meow and meow. Finally he decided it was safe to come out of the building and headed straight for that pan of water where he drank and drank. We talked to him and he seemed quite content to have a friend. Back to the water for another good drink.
The neighbors were still in their yard and he decided to go see them. They petted him and made over him and he enjoyed every moment of it – like he knew whom to thank for his release.
This cat was in that hot building for at least five, maybe more, days because I had told our daughter and son-in-law about the meowing sound on Wednesday, July 4th, when we were with them. It was Sunday, July 8th, when he was discovered – a bit thinner but alive and well. Now that cat has used up a good portion of his nine lives.
THANKS JEAN, for your cat story!
THE WORDWRIGHT
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