Cats

Our first house was way out in the sticks. Our back yard was 1600 acres of swamp, the only neighbors on that side were moose. Each house on the street had about two acres so there was plenty of room between the houses. It was a quiet neighborhood and we were at the end of a cul-de-sac. It was a good house to raise children in and animals as well.

We had one two cats when we moved there. One had come from our apartment and the other was from a friend that moved and could not have animals. Our neighbor did not believe in getting their pets neutered so guess where they ended up. Under out stairs having kittens. Well, we like cats so being Nice Guys we took the kittens in and had them fixed. We approached out neighbors and explained the situation to them and after a week their cat was gone. They said that they knew of some friends that had a farm and she was in good care. We took this as truth and went about our lives. A couple of weeks later we went on one our trips to the local Humane Society. We did this often to bring in supplies, blankets and to see the animals. While we were there we recognized a long hair calico cat. It was our neighbors. We were shocked that such a good natured cat should be discarded like this. So we did what Nice Guys do, we brought her home. We had to pay for half the cost of getting her fixed but now she was with her kittens. So at this point we had five cats. We love cats, remember. We also had a dachshund who was fond of terrorizing the cats but being short of stature did not fare well at this, he soon learned. After a while word must have got out that we had cats at this out of the way home because they started just showing up. People would drop off cats and drive away. At one point we had seventeen cats, most of which stayed outside, were not totally crazy. We did not want the population to get out of hand so we made a deal with the local Humane Society and they helped us pay for the cost of getting the cats fixed. It was quite a task to catch all of them to do this. I ended up at the doctors once, nothing major.

Not only did people drop off cats but baby squirrels and birds as well. What are we supposed to do with these? We are Nice Guys, not veterinarians. We found places that would take them and brought them in to be brought back to health and released. Luckily our population stopped at seventeen, in fact, because of the Fisher Cats it declined. It was a hassle but we felt we had to do what we did. If we had not there would have been thousands of cats in ten years. A friend of mine that hunts offered to take care of the excess felines but I could not do such a thing. Our children used to watch as seventeen cats milled around the sliding door waiting for food. It was really quite entertaining.

We have three cats now. Three lazy, freeloading hoodlums that we would not do without. Two tabbies and one black cat.

When a Nice Guy finished a day with the usual rabble it is nice to come home to an animal. Cats or dogs they are always happy to see you and they will listen to anything.