A Winter Day in the Life of a Farm Cat





    She works in the basement at night, catching those pesky little mice. It helps keep the mice from nipping off the little plants that are coming up. Occasionally she jumps too hard on a pipe or crashes something over, but she is busy doing her night job. Then toward daylight, all tuckered out, she crashes for some well earned sleep on her blanket on the work bench. 

Spunky Brewster, farm cat,
before the big snow



   When everyone begins moving around upstairs, she grabs a nibble of cat food and then screams to be let outside. It's time to do chores! Racing outside into the snow, she catches little somethings and jumps and twirls, showing off her agility (something her inside cat brother doesn't possess). Off to the chicken house! The door is opened and she jumps at the chickens, trying to scare them! They look at her, bored, and then look away. They know that she isn't allowed to hurt them and she is just playing. Having grown up with them, and having the chickens bigger than her, has made her cautious about being too close to them.

   At the duck house she waits for their water dish to be filled and takes the first drink. She doesn't like drinking after the ducks...duck spit, yuck. The ducks clamber out of their house, sliding like penguins across the snow, scooping the wheat berries into their bills and sucking them down. They wait patiently until she is done drinking and then they take over the water bowl, slurping and clacking happily. She doensn't pay them any attention as it's time to continue chores.

   Off to the small barn! She races away, running fast then screeching to a halt to check out some little something in the snow, then racing away again. She is non-stop, keeping her energy at top level and her prowess as a hunter on high alert. In the small barn she scouts for mice, looking into empty crates, jumping up on the grain bins to check behind them. No mice can get by her - the fearless hunter! But, she sees none. She waits until the hay is collected from inside the barn and tossed to the cows outside, then she races away to the big barn.
   At the big barn is a great scratching post. She climbs up and down and all around it. Then she walks over to visit the pigs, jumping into their pens and walking around like the lion queen. She likes the big  boar and chats with him, even though he is ignoring her and grunting for food. She doesn't like the little pigs as they are always screaming for their vittles. When she jumps out, her damp feet stick to the wire fencing for a moment, freezing on it temporarily. It's still very cold out!
   Inside the barn she visits with the woolies (sheep) while they are fed and their door to the outside is slid open. She balances on the wood fence, showing her skills to the wooly girls. They try to sniff cat toes as the toes walk by. Done with the sheep chores and the animals are all done.
   The rest of the morning is spent in the semi-warm barn, hunting for mice. When nap time comes, there is a nice cozy hole she has made in the hay. She snuggles in and curls up for a few hours until evening chores. Then in the evening the chores are reversed again. She races from the barn through the barnyard snow and back up to the house where she waits to be let in. Then back down the stairs to become the "monster under the stairs" and to hunt at night. Ah, a full day at the farm for the farm cat!