When cats attack

Back when I was studying my real estate courses, there was a section about things that can actually be part of a property transfer that are not considered "real property". When you purchase a home, you are actually purchasing the LAND and everything attached to it. Like the house (and items attached to that), trees etc. What you don't automatically get are things like the furniture, potted plants, yard implements and such. Back in the metropolis of woodinville, that sometimes led to interesting conversations when sellers wanted to remove officially "attached" items (light fixtures, shower heads, flowers) and I actually had a deal flip when the seller refused to leave a dining room light and the buyer insisted that she would not accept payment and installation of an exact replica as sufficient. But I digress.

At the time of the study, It was hard to imagine why you'd buy all of somebodies old stuff anyway. This little taste we've had of farm life has changed my mind completely. Someone who has lived and worked on the property ends up with all kinds of useful tools and sets things up to work efficiently for the property. Going in and setting up all new systems (like irrigation parts) would be considerable expense, and if the seller took the pieces they had bought for your particular property, they likely would not work right at THEIR new property. So in addition to an impressive array of sprinklers and pipes and hoses, we have a ton of great tools and yard equipment that were part of our deal here.

One of the necessary tools here is a "barn cat" (or several) to control the rodent population. We don't have a barn, but to balance the deficit, we have 16 barn cats. Or 19, depends on who is counting. These cats don't live in the house and they subsist on the scraps that get thrown to them as well as a hearty supply of field mice and birds. The queen kitty is raising her second batch of kittens for the summer, and the first batch has yet to find homes. It was rumored that the natural enemies of the cats would 'thin the herd', but unfortunately these kitties have several new protectors that look suspiciously like the kids.

Nearly from the beginning, the kids began naming the cats and kittens, much to the chagrin of Hugh and I who have a hard enough time naming pets we wants to keep. One kid or the other will rush in bright eyed and ask "Do you know what penelope just did?" or "Goliath's eyes are open!". All such reports are met with a stern "We are not keeping any cats!" We were told we should have at least 3, so with our resident transplant kitty (who actually was barn cat from here once upon a time) Shadrach, we can keep two more. It's been a constant rotation of nominees from the kids as to which lucky cats we will keep. I prefer the natural selection method; in which the kittens will be given away until only the most hideous specimens are left to patrol the premises. This is how Hugh and I once ended up with a kitten named "Little Ugly".

It is my hope the the two homely cats will be so grotesque they will cause other felines to vehemently reject them as mating candidates. In fact, I hope the cat community begins to believe that there is toxic waste here and they flee from the sight of the property as if their future generations depended on it.

Until then, the far-tamer-than-usual barn cats are gracing me with lovely displays like the one above. I believe this is the one they call Tumbleweed.