Mewsings, February 15, 2019: "People that don't like cats haven't met the right one yet."
- Deborah A. Edwards, D.V.M.

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- Love, The Management.

The time my hubby killed a barn to save a kitten.
by Jennifer Shike

Yes, he did. But I’ll get to that in a minute. To truly appreciate my husband’s heroic act, I need to take you back in time a few years (OK, maybe 20). In college, my husband, Dan, and I were in a literature class. Our assignment was to write a persuasive paper. We knew our professor loved cats. Dan, on the other hand, did not. But he chose to write a paper on why cats were truly man’s best friend. The professor loved it and it goes down as one of our favorite stories to laugh about when we remember our college days.

Fast forward to 2017. Our son had been begging to get a dog for years. Dan and I both had dogs growing up and hope we do get a dog someday. However, due to our family’s travel schedule, we decided a dog would not be very happy with its owners gone all the time.

Now a cat? Well, that’s a different story. After many attempts to persuade us into buying a dog, including a ploy to get a baby brother if he couldn’t get a dog, we finally agreed to start up our own herd of barn cats.

On Christmas Day 2017, Honey entered our lives. She is an amazing cat. She is one of the best mousers I’ve ever seen and guards our barn very seriously. She follows our son around like a dog would and has done her best to compensate for her species type. She even blessed us with three beautiful babies last fall. Hunter takes his role as barn cat herdsman seriously and manages a daily check or two of everyone’s status.

Two nights ago, Dan heard the most horrible yowling ever when he was doing chores. After a quick inventory of the crew and some searching, he realized that the fattest and least tame of Honey’s kittens, Tigger, was stuck in the wall of our barn.

He determined that although there was a path out of Tigger’s predicament, the poor cat was just too scared to figure it out. So he employed Honey to help and opened up the barn for the night, hoping she could coerce Tigger to come out. However, that plan didn’t work.
When the guys got home from wrestling practice last evening, they popped into the house quick to announce they were going to tear the barn apart because Tigger was still stuck and it didn’t look good for the cat.

After quite a while of troubleshooting and exploring the situation, Dan discovered that the cat had climbed her way to the top of the barn between the wooden posts located in between the two sheets of aluminum siding.

Two hours later, my sweet husband walked back into the house and explained that the problem was solved, but the barn may need some fixing. In order to save the cat, he had to pull the aluminum off the barn in a few spots, climb up the beams and basically knock the kitten down so she could find the new hole to escape. Tigger was finally free.

I realize this may not sound like every woman’s dream Valentine’s Day gift, but for me, there isn’t anything better. The cat is saved. My children are ecstatic. Sure, the barn needs a little work and Dan’s plans for the evening were definitely foiled, but everyone went to sleep with peaceful hearts. I’ll take that over roses any Valentine’s Day.

My Infinite Gratitude

The following is a relatively short yet very heartening list of those who have contributed in support of the Infinite Cat Project over the years. In lieu of listing the names in any intelligent way I decided to post them alphabetically. It's not a perfect system, as those of you of Polish descent get the shaft again <grin> but at least it helps me keep the names straight.

In case you're wondering, names in black indicate donations of $5 or less, while green notates donations in excess of $10. The listings in orange are for two very exceptional cat lovers who have earned the prestigious "Multiple Kittyheads" avatars for their generous and continuing support. Thank you all very much!