This black and white cat is named Wednesday. She allowed children to do what they willed with her and never hurt one. Not even when she was lifted off the ground by her tail.
This is Charley. Once he half fell in the manure pit and came home half soaked in raw cow manure when I had the flue. He also stole my heart in such a special way. He had such a kind soul. He was the master mouse and rat catcher. He also came in the house once day with a very large snake. He and Wednesday were sister and brother and they loved each other so much. They sort of saved my life.
I lived on a farm for a portion of my childhood. During that time we lived in an old farm house. It was the house my dad grew up living in. It had four bedrooms upstairs and down those stairs, through a hallway, and through the large dining room and to the right was the lone bathroom in that house. So I grew up with one bathroom and a family of seven. Here I am today living out that joy
again. I guess I was in training back then because we seem to rock this one bathroom thing. So anyway the reason why I am pointing out the location of the bathroom is because if you had the inconvenience of waking up in the night with any sort of bathroom type urgings it was quite the trek down creaky winding stairs, through the dark hallway, and dining room to the bathroom. ALSO it was PITCH black. I am not sure if night lights just had not been invented yet but it was dark. There was no street lights, no computer or printer lights, and no lit up cordless phone just pure black.
That being said another gift this old farm house gave us was mice. We had mice. They were only down stairs in the pantry and kitchen area (ha ha that I am aware of!) but they had to go through the dining room to get to the kitchen. I had too many nights where I would brave the stairs and get the light on in the dining room only to break into shrieks as I would almost be stepping on a mouse. I would jump on the table, my exhausted father would stumble out of bed yelling in terror thinking something horrible was happening, and anyway...the memories are not so rosy. So that, coupled with mice surprising me in feed barrels and hay bales and trying to rescue mice from our cat...resulted in me developing a bit of a horror of them.
After we moved I had no more mouse encounters until I was newly married and the age of twenty one. We lived in part of a basement in a house in town and one night we had some guests over and as we were chatting a little mouse walked under the door into the suite. It took one look at us and skedaddled right into my bedroom! My husband and I had never discussed mouse edicate and I was determined that I was not going to sleep in my room or even in my house that night! My husband ripped the room apart looking for it but it was not to be found. I called my dad and told him I was coming over to sleep at home but my husband told me in no uncertain terms I was not going anywhere. I was a submissive wife (back then) so I layed in my bed in horror of a mouse running over my pillow! For a couple days I lived in the agony of terror that when I opened a cupboard a little mouse would be there. We found out that the landladie's sister had thought it would be funny to bring a mouse over and let it go. I was SO not impressed. Well a couple days later we came home after a night out and it was late. We were sitting in the living room when I SAW THE MOUSE! It was in our little front entry way. I started losing my mind and hyperventilating. My husband, who also grew up on a farm and does not share my horror of mice, cooly loaded his BB gun and barricaded off the front entry way. The poor little mouse did not have a chance. I alternated between crying and pleading for its life but really I didn't want it to be in my house and I didn't see how I could catch it in my terror and my husband was a crack shot. So that was that.
Fast forward to me at twenty nine. Once again I was living on a farm and in a house that had formerly been a large storage shed. It was also right across from the barn. It was only a matter of time before the mice moved back in and they did.
At first I was oblivious but one night my sister said, 'was that a mouse?!' and a battle was started. It was indeed a mouse and he had brought his family ~ father, mother, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles etc. They were having a hay day living in our couches, under our counters and the stove and basically everywhere in our massive house. I was not a cool customer I was losing it!! We set traps and I tried every mouse trick everyone told me to try but it did nothing. It was when I got the two cats (Charley and Wednesday) that the mice started to realize I was serious about the eviction notice. However since I had not realized how extensively they had moved in I was in for some moments of pure panic. One day I heard the cats getting pretty excited upstairs and realized they had unearthed a whole nest of mice! Mice were swarming everywhere and the cats were doing their best to keep track of them all. One mouse tried to commit suicide by jumping down from ten feet up in our mezzanine and almost landed on my head! I am not sure how I got through that incident but I did.
This is what the mouse jumped off of.
There were many more but the mother of all was the day that my faithful and lovely Charley cat brought in a rat. He was so proud of his catch and could not resist showing off to me. The rat was very much alive and kicking and Charley must have felt he needed a rest so he let the rat run for a bit ~ in my living room. I almost had a coronary. I ran to the barn screaming for my husband who was embarrassed and unimpressed at my total hysteria in front of his brother and the hoof trimmer. I had to go back to the house alone. Then through the haze of panic I remembered my sister in law. My hero. I knew she had no fear of mice and I was pretty sure rats would not faze her either. I called her and she came running from her house across the driveway to mine. She swooped into my house and caught that rat in a bucket. She cooly took it outside and gave it to the dog. After that the mice didn't come back. My cats where heroic and faithful in keeping the mice at bay. I was ever in their debt AND my sister in laws!
There was one mouse though that I felt a tiny bit of affection towards. That was the mouse that came out to visit the cows every milking. My husband is sure it was impaired in some way because it had no fear of the animals and would scurry around under their massive feet. He thought maybe it was blind or deaf. It was so tiny and fearless and as soon as the machine started pumping we would see its little grey body come on out. It was adorable and so faithful.
Since moving into to this house in town I have had a welcome respite from mice. Our neighbor DID have ten cats so that might explain things. She has since moved and the cat traffic has calmed down considerably. However I am hoping that I can stay mouse free and keep my sanity.
