Poo Poo and Other Cat Problems

At Four Sisters Farm we have farm cats (aka barn cats). They are a necessary part of farm life and they are pretty cute. Right now there are four cats - you've probably already met Ranger. For a while he was the "lone ranger" when all the other cats disappeared. He's big, he's fluffy, he likes people, he tolerates the dogs, and he LOVES to eat...a lot and the other cats have been taking lessons.

When Ranger became the lone ranger, the Farm Hands decided to go get more cats. They came home with the next two cats pictured above. Their previous owners had sent them packing to the Humane Society. They never *fully tell you what kind of problems the previous owners had with these "rejected" felines but it is very suspicious.

Then when some friends moved away from the area, they had several kittens that we had offered to take in. Darling little things. Wild in varying degrees. Wild enough that I had our family "Cat Whisperer" (Lou Lou) and her BFF come to tame them and they had great success. You don't see pictures of them because one met her demise under the wheel of a pickup, a second one hitch-hiked into town and decided to stay, and the remaining little darling tries to be invisible and uncatchable as much as possible (which is why you don't see a picture of the little beast).

What seemed like a good idea to me was to keep these sweet little critters in the garage so they could adjust to their environment and not try to make a run for their former homes. EJ set up a communal food dish and litter bucket for them and all seemed well for a time. Then the weather turned cool and I got the bright idea to keep them in the shed to shelter them until spring...you know, when it would be warmer and the little cats would be larger. That's when the serious poo poo problems began. The little darlings seemed to be going number two excessively...in no time at all, they rendered their litter pan overflowing and trying to clean and refill seemed impossible. They started going in other places...like in the sawdust under the table saw and in small amounts of dust that had blown in under the garage door. Ugh. And the SMELL!

EJ tried to help me out. He said that we should just not feed them in the garage. But the little dears are hungry and they love me when I feed them. So for now, I'll keep changing the litter boxes...note that I said BOXES...I figure I'd rather change several litter boxes every few days than to sniff out and clean up the piles everywhere. I even figured out a way to recycle some boxes so I can just discard the mess - box and all. Spring can not come too soon this year. Then the little beasts will be big enough I won't feel badly for them. I'll happily feed them near the back door...and they can clean up their own messes! Yes, EJ, you were right. I've learned my lesson. As for now...cover me...I'm goin' in!