Buckle up this may be a long one.

So, we have the barn cats, right? Boy Kitty and Girl Kitty, Nugget and French Fry, Salt and Pepper, really whatever anyone feels like calling them at any given time. Well, we got them in July as kittens (I am a sucker when it comes to free/ cheap animals on Facebook) I had every intention of being a responsible pet owner and getting them spayed and neutered. I figured they were kittens, and we had some time, and since they were barn cats, I would find one of those low-cost clinics when the time came. Well around the new year we noticed GK getting a little round…. After a few weeks of suspicion, and seeing another boy kitty hanging around, I figured it would be best to get her into a room in the barn with heat in it so if and when she did pop, they could stay warm.

Any time GK has gone away on one of her adventures, BK is always DEVASTATED. He cries, and is clingy, and mopey and you can tell he just misses his sister. So naturally locking her in a room away from him has not gone over well. I tried giving him visitation, but he didn’t seem too keen on getting locked in a room either, even if it meant being warm. Well, exactly one week ago, GK did in fact pop, and is now the proud mama to 5 beautiful baby kittens, who actually look like little blind mice.

Back to BK… I don’t know if somebody told him he wouldn’t be seeing his sister for a few more weeks but in his total misery and despair, he bounced. The last time I saw him was probably the day the kittens were born, so he’s been missing for a week. Saturday when I was going to work, I saw something dead in the road past where I had to turn and I called my sister to make her go make sure it was not him, it was not… THEN, last night he appeared on our town Facebook page… the post said something along the lines of is this anyone’s cat? He showed up yesterday very hungry, we are taking care of him. With a picture of the little bandit. Seeing it was close to 9:00 pm with the kids in bed for the night, I replied saying Yes! he’s mine, I will be there in the morning to pick him up, but he will probably end up back because you fed him. I figured she would say something along the lines of okay, I will stop feeding him then, but no, the woman replies and says she will be there at 10:00am for me to meet. Great, I am supposed to be at work at 10:00am, and work is 30 mins away, but I will be late, gotta go get my cat!

So this morning after dropping the kids at school, I ran to Tractor Supply to get some wet food for the little brat to bribe him to stay put. At 10:00 I pull into his vacation spot and tell the woman I am here to get my cat! She tells me oh we were going to keep him! he’s so sweet, we love him yada yada yada… I know, I have a good cat. She brings me into the barn and says hmm, I wonder where he went, he was just here eating, and points to a bowl of wet food. Now, I have a million things going through my head. 1. Why on earth are you STILL feeding him? 2. Why are you feeding him wet food? He is definitely going to be back now. 3. I thought you had him contained. 4. Are you just trying to steal my cat? 5. Are you f******* kidding me, I am supposed to be at work right now. She walks around calling him and looking for him, now mind you it is POURING outside, and I am walking around outside while she looks through the barn. A minute or two later, she walks out holding him, and about two seconds after that her giant poofy poodle jumps up on her and BK claws his way out of her arms and takes off. She says to me, now that I picked him up, he is kinda beefy. Well yeah lady, because he has a home where he is fed and loved! We walked a little more to look for him but with the dogs also running around we weren’t going to catch that cat. Being late for work we left it at- she was going to bring a carrier this evening and try to catch him to bring him home.

Moral of the story: If a cat shows up at your house/ barn/ yard/ work and it is not your cat, DO NOT FEED IT! Cats roam, and they remember where the easiest best food is. I will give an update if and when I ever get my cat back.

UPDATE: That night I had reached back out to the woman asking if she had seen him again. She told me no, she hadn’t, but she would bring a carrier in the morning. I thought to myself, wait a minute, you said you were going back tonight, so I just said to her- Do you mind if I bring my son over to look for him and call him because I told him I was going to get his cat today and I still don’t have the cat. She then said, I will head back over soon and see if he’s back. She got back to me a little while later saying she didn’t see him but he’d be back in the morning and she’ll bring a carrier. Annoyed, I let it be for the night.

That whole night and the next morning, I kept away from the topic with Oliver because I didn’t want to upset him or let him down. I thought I had made it, the cat didn’t come up, we were in the car for school, he’d be home when the kids got home from school, and everything was going to be okay, but then as we were pulling into the school Oliver goes to me- hey mom, did you ever get my cat? my heart sank, I had to let my kid down before he had to go sit through school all day. So, I said- I went to get him yesterday but the Lady’s dog jumped up on her when she caught him, and he ran away. I told him she didn’t see him last night, but she was going to look again this morning but if she didn’t find him, we could go after school to call him and look. He then says back to me- OH! Nick lives over there we can have him help us look! I said you know Oliver, the problem is, because she fed him, he may end up back there and I’m pretty annoyed about it too. To which he goes- that’s okay because then we can have like, a connection with them. I think my jaw just about hit the floor. Oliver is the kind of kid that if the wind blows the wrong way he is looking for someone to blame and someone owes him and he is MAD. I am not particularly proud of this but it’s just the way he is. I told him I was proud of him for how well he handled the disappointing news and sent him on his way to school.

After I got to work I got a message from the woman- “bring a carrier, I have him locked in the office.” I was not going to let this woman keep my cat for another minute so I asked Alli (my assistant manager who lives near me and just so happened to have the morning off) if she could go capture him. Her mission was successful and BK is now being contained for a few weeks until his appointment to be fixed and then hopefully he will never leave home again!