Neutral Territory

Our cat, Dale, just had 4 kittens.

STOP! Don't touch that keyboard!

I know some of you are ready to zip off a comment about spaying, unwanted animals, adoption, etc.

Let me explain the history of our barn cats.

We got our first cat in McDonough.

Atwell was a great cat--good mouser and reasonably friendly. She was visited by a smooth-talking tomcat and gave birth to two kittens.

Now, Woodchuck Acres was over-run with rodents, so the prospect of multiple outdoor cats was appealing. We found a home for one of the kittens and elected to keep the other whom we named Petrov.

And since we now had two female cats, we took Atwell to the vet and had her neutered.

Within a month she had gone walkabout never to return and Petrov got hit by a car.

We arrived in Indiana sans felines.

Skillet Farm also seemed to have it's share of pests and vermin. So we acquired two kittens, Dale and Penny.

Penny was the most energetic in chasing down small furry animals. She also was the one who disappeared forever within a month of her arrival.

The decision not to spay Dale was intentional. We like cats, we do not like mice and voles and rabbits who chomp our garden vegetables and find their way into the insulation in the garage. One cat can't keep up with three acres worth of nibblers.

We now have 5 cats. We don't expect we will have all 5 for long. You may not understand this, but cats at Skillet Farm are working animals, not pets. They live outside, are free to wander the neighborhood and sometimes meet up with unpreventable mishap.We will make future decisions about how many kittens to keep --we may give some away, we may even finally spay Dale, but whatever we decide is right for our situation.

Ok, let the comments begin!