Junkyard Cat

Saved at the salvage yard

Our son had some trouble with his car, and his mechanic advised him that a used part would make the repair a lot cheaper. He couldn't take off time from his job, so I volunteered to get the part. I inquired by telephone at some salvage yards and finally found a compatible vehicle at Arrow Salvage at Nortonville, Kentucky.

"We don't take parts off cars without a deposit," the man on the phone told me. So I drove up there to make a down payment.

Nortonville is a small town in southern Hopkins County, about 45 miles from where I live in Christian County. Arrow Salvage is a few miles west of Nortonville on a small highway that winds through the hills to Dawson Springs.

I was a little worried about finding the salvage yard, but it had a huge sign painted on the side of an old semi trailer. Then I wasn't sure whether the sign really meant I should turn on the extremely wide road with a coal mine sign and a half-closed gate. But yes, that was the right road, and it led to the discontinued coal mine which is the site of Arrow Salvage.

Apparently when the coal mine ceased operation, the big crane and some other equipment were left in place. Arrow Salvage recycles cars, steel, aluminum, copper, and brass (according to their sign on the highway) so maybe they'll eventually pull down that machinery and recycle it.

Inside the little office, the boss was on the phone with someone who wanted parts for a car. A black and white kitten was playing around the legs of his desk. As I waited, my shoelaces caught the kitten's eye, and he attacked them vigorously. To divert his attention, I scooped him up and tried to pet him. He didn't have any patience for that, so I picked up a flyswatter and convinced him that he should play with it instead of my feet.

The boss finally terminated his phone call. "Sorry about that," he said. "Sometimes they have to tell you their life story." As he was writing the receipt for my deposit, I told him I liked his kitten.

"That cat!" he said, and told me its story. The kitten showed up on the steps of the office one day. Maybe someone gave him a little food. Anyway, the kitten decided that was his home, and he was there every day playing around the building.

Then one day, an elderly lady came to the salvage yard, and she tried to make friends with the kitten. He was feeling frisky, and he nipped her finger with his sharp little teeth, as kittens are prone to do. The lady bled a little, but the boss thought it was a minor injury. "You know how old folks bleed real easy," he told me, and I agreed that we do.

But the lady didn't take her injury so lightly. She went home and called the Health Department, and some workers drove out to the salvage yard to investigate. It made the man mad because the little kitten was innocent. He had only been playing, and he wasn't sick. They wanted to know if it was his cat. He told them, "No, but by gosh, it's going to be."

So the kitten went to the vet where it was observed for a period of time. At the end of its quarantine, the vet pronounced it healthy and gave it the vaccinations it needed, and the man paid the bill and brought his kitten back home to the salvage yard.

As I drove home, I pondered how the kitten had won the friendship of a busy man who runs a metal salvage business and doesn't take parts off cars without a deposit.

The next day, I drove back to the salvage yard to pick up the part. The sun was shining brightly, and the air was pleasantly cool. The boss and another worker had a pickup truck and trailer parked beside the office, and they were working on the truck. The kitten wasn't in the office when I paid the remaining balance for the part, so I asked about him. "He's out there in the trailer, and he's feeling real frisky this morning," the boss said.

"Feeling real frisky" meant that the kitten was climbing the slats of the trailer and reaching out to snag anything that came within range. I managed to get a couple of wild-eyed photos of him. They don't do him justice. He really is a beautiful little creature -- sleek and lithe and overflowing with the joy of life.

A Dog in a Cat Family

Cats and dog make peace

About a year ago, Dennis brought home a little homeless Basset hound that had been hanging around his workplace and beseeching him for friendship.

I felt sorry for the little dog, but I was dubious that she would fit into a household that already had two cats. That's an understatement. To be more accurate, I was furious with Sophie for scaring the cats so badly. Every chance she got, she gave them a merry chase -- merry for her, but terrifying for Casper and Skittles, who wondered why we were allowing a monster to live at our house.

Isaac theorized that Sophie thought the cats were members of the rabbit family ("house rabbits", Isaac said,) and, being a Basset hound and natural born rabbit-chaser, she was only following her instincts. I understood that, but it was hard to feel any sympathy for Sophie as, night after night,  I had to coax Casper out of the neighbor's barns where he had taken refuge.

After a few weeks, Skittles had had enough. She decided that Sophie would not interfere with her life, and  when Sophie tried to chase, Skittles didn't run anymore. She stopped and turned around, and Sophie backed off.

Casper remained afraid, though, and Sophie took every chance to intimidate him. She restrained herself in our presence, but when she thought we weren't watching, she chased Casper, just for the joy of making him run.

I wished I could tell Casper that if he would just once turn around and give Sophie a claw in the nose, she would never bother him again.  But little by little, Casper became braver. He finally realized that Sophie didn't bother him when I was carrying him. Then, he learned that if a human was between him and Sophie, he could safely creep by.

We kept Sophie outside most of the time, but one day, she was visiting inside the house and she fell asleep. With great caution, Casper crept close to her. He was ready to run, but she stayed asleep as he sniffed her all over. I guess he had been wondering exactly what she was.

Sophie had an accident a few months ago. We don't know what happened, but she cracked her pelvis and injured one of her hip joints. She spent several weeks inside the house. If the cats were surprised at this turn of events, they quickly saw that she wasn't interested in them anymore. She only wanted to sleep (the effect of her pain pills.) We are still bringing Sophie inside at night to sleep in her crate, and I anticipate that this will continue.

Yesterday, we came to a milestone. When Dennis got home from work, Sophie came inside with him. A few minutes later, I saw Sophie and Casper, lying on the kitchen floor within four feet of each other. I would never have predicted that degree of comfort between them, a year ago.

I wouldn't say that the cats and the dog are friends, but they do accept that they are relatives. This sort of truce often exists between members of a family.

Related:
Partners in Crime
The Life of Skittles
Extreme Cat Moods
Making Friends
Kids and Kittens

Master of Snooze

Kitties do know how to enjoy a nap!

Joys of Cathood

Curling up with a good book

Skittles has a good idea about how to spend a cold winter day. I would like to do just that (take a nap), but I will be making Christmas candy. I'm getting Grandma Netz's annual box of homemade sweets ready to ship.

So far, I've only made chocolate covered peanuts. Today, I hope to make cherry bonbons and some peanut butter and chocolate fudge. Tomorrow, I hope to dip some pretzels and send the box. Sometime after that, I will clean up the chocolate dribbles and splashes in the kitchen.

Related candy posts:
Conflicted about Christmas Candy
Homemade Christmas Candy
Ghosts of Christmas Past 3

Related cat posts:
The Life of Skittles
Strolls with Skittles
Safe and Secure From All Alarms

Cat Nap

Simple pleasures

Casper lives by the cat rule, "If you like it, take a nap on it." As you can see, he likes my housecoat.

Rufus

A little creature, loved and mourned

About a month ago, a starving kitten showed up at Keely's house. She saw it when she was leaving for work but she couldn't catch it. Later in the day, Isaac came to hang out for a few hours between school and work. He, too, heard the kitten's pitful cries, and he caught it by offering it a bit of food.

Keely had one of the vets at her job check him for parasites, feline leukemia, distemper, etc., and he was given a clean bill of health. However, he was very thin -- skin-over-bones thin. They named him Rufus for the rough life he'd led so far.

Today, after a month of nursing little Rufus and hoping for the best, he had to be put to sleep. He just couldn't recover from the severe starvation he had endured. I suppose his organs were damaged because he was near death when Isaac caught him. We will remember him for his loud purr and for his affection for humans.

Casper at Two

Kitty birthday

We don't know the exact date of Casper's birth, but it was about this time of the year. He and his siblings were orphaned when they were about a month old. When we got him a few weeks later, he was a thin little kitten. He wasn't old enough to chew and swallow Kitten Chow, but he had been eating enough of it to stay alive.

We found an internet recipe for Kitty Joy Juice (kitten milk replacer) and he thrived on it. I should mix him up a batch for his birthday. I'm sure he would still remember it. He gets excited every time I open a packet of plain gelatin -- one of the ingredients.

We've had Casper for nearly two years now. He's always been hard to photograph because of his white coat. Furthermore, he doesn't like to look at the camera because he knows it might flash. He agreed to pose for this birthday portrait only if he could pretend to ignore me.

Casper is -- and always has been -- an ornery cat. He's likely to nip a friendly outreached hand. He loves to spring from a hiding place to attack, all in good fun, of course. He doesn't understand why people get irate about bleeding a little. I think he has a little extra meanness in his genes to make up for his white coat which offers little natural camouflage.

On the other hand, when he's feeling mellow, he's a purr-cat with no claws or teeth at all. Like the little girl with the curl, when he's good, he's very, very good, and when he's bad, he's horrid.

Some earlier posts about Casper:
Casper Cat
Not a Still Life
Casper's Adventure
Making Friends:
Picture of Innocence (Ha!)
Casper The Climber
Cat Meets Cicadas
Casper Likes Autumn
Search this blog for "Casper"

Partners in Crime

Bad kitties

It's a good thing Dennis didn't see these two sitting on his car. I thought they were cute, though naughty. I don't think Dennis would have agreed about their cuteness.

Dennis doesn't usually park in this spot. The cats noticed right away that a new napping location was available.

Old L & N Freight Depot in Hopkinsville, KY

Where the cats hang out

This is the east side of the old L&N freight depot in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Most recently, a portion of it was used as a video store. As far as I know, the building is now unoccupied.

When the depot was in active use, the docks on the east side of the building (photo above) were used for loading freight that was leaving the depot and for unloading freight that was arriving to be shipped.

The train stopped beside the freight docks on the opposite side of the building to load and unload. It appears that the docks had big sliding doors that could be closed and locked (photo at right.)

The L&N passenger depot was a little farther down the tracks -- the gray-green building on the right. When the train stopped, passengers could get on and off while the freight was being handled.

A soft heart for cats

On the morning that I took these pictures, I saw ten or so feral cats gathered at the rear of the building. Soon, a man pulled up in a Jeep Cherokee and filled some water and food dishes under the steps (left photo below.) Then I realized that the cats were waiting for him.

The cats and their caretaker reminded me of an article that was in the newspaper a couple of years ago. When I got home, I looked it up. The man whom I saw is surely the man whom the newspaper article was about -- Wallace Henderson, who feeds the feral cats of downtown Hopkinsville in several locations. One of the places the newspaper article mentions is the old L&N freight depot:

Next, from Clay Street, Henderson heads for the old L&N freight station on Ninth Street. The cats slink behind a fence and hurdle across the railroad tracks when he arrives.

Henderson is content to let the cats watch him from a distance. They are too wild to trust him.

"I have not named any of them, but I am concerned if I don't see one that I am used to seeing," he says.

At this spot, the cats eat from a dry spot below a set of metal steps. It looks like rain today, so Henderson pushes the food bowl well beneath the steps.

Quoted from "Feline Feed" by Jennifer P. Brown, Kentucky New Era, December 19, 2006. (Subscription required.)

At the time the article was written, Mr. Henderson said he had been feeding the cats for ten years. If you look closely at the small photo above, at right, you can see one of the cats crossing the railroad tracks after he has had his morning snack.

Related post: Hopkinsville's Railroad

How to Spend a Cold Winter Morning

Staying warm and being cool

Some of us have to go outside, brace ourselves against a cold wind, scrape off our frosty cars, and go to work, but Casper is spending this chilly winter morning in a more sensible way.

Cats and Christmas Trees

An evergreen feline attraction

Casper and some of his seasonal cat toys

I've had quite a few cats through the years, and they have all liked the Christmas tree.

Skittles is technically Isaac's cat, and she is the exception to the rule. She was about six months old at her first Christmas. She must have been outside when we started putting up the tree, because we had a good start on decorating it before she discovered it.

As soon as Skittles came into the living room and saw the tree, she jumped right up into its branches. I guess she thought it was a real tree. "NOOOOOO, Skittles!" we all shrieked in unison, as the tree began to tip over. Terrified by the whole experience, she ran from the room, and she has ignored the tree ever since. Trauma is not always a bad thing.

Happy, our old tom that we lost summer before last, was a terror with the tree when he was little. Until we got Happy, I still had several dozen 2-inch red satin balls that I liked to hang on the Christmas tree every year. They had been on the Christmas tree in the church when we got married.

During Happy's frisky kitten years, those red satin balls were his favorite. He loved to ricochet one across the room and catch it again by sinking his claws into its threads. When he got one of those balls, it had to be retrieved rapidly, or it would be too torn up to put back on the tree.

Later on, Happy lost most of his interest in the ornaments. He just enjoyed sleeping on the quilted tree skirt. He followed the rule, "If you like it, take a nap on it."

Casper is enjoying his second Christmas this year. He has only climbed up into the tree once this year that I know of. Dennis doused him thoroughly with water from the squirt bottle, and he rapidly exited the tree. I haven't seen him even attempt to climb it again.

Like Happy, Casper is very fond of lying underneath the tree. He checks out the interesting "toys" that hang from the bottom of the tree, and then, he usually takes a nap.

Caspar has several favorite ornaments that I pick up and rehang every day. He prefers the little stuffed, furry things over hard metal or plastic ornaments. He likes to sink his teeth into them and give them a thorough kicking. I hope they survive the season.

Safe and Secure from All Alarms

Skittles and her can

Skittles is such an intense little cat. When she decides she likes some particular place to sleep, she sleeps there fervently and often. Some of the places she favors are a little odd. For example, she's always been fond of sleeping in the trash can.

Recently, she took a liking to the little rug in front of the kitchen range. That didn't work out too well because people stepped on her all the time. One night, as I tried to stop stepping on her and she screeched in protest, I almost fell into a pot of hot soup.

Something had to be done. I had a big, empty, popcorn tin so I put an old towel in the bottom of it and set it in front of the range. She jumped right in, curled up, and took a long nap. I guess it reminded her of the trash can.

Since then, Skittles has been spending a lot of time sleeping in her popcorn can. She loves it, and it amuses me to have her there now that I don't have to worry about stepping on her.

Today, after I broke a glass in the kitchen, I vacuumed to clean up any splinters I might have missed with the broom. Usually, Skittles would have to leave the room while the vacuum was running. She's always very careful not to get caught in close quarters with that noisy monster.

But today, she felt so secure in her popcorn can that she didn't have to leave, not even when I vacuumed her rug. After several minutes of noisy vacuuming, I passed her can again, and she was half-asleep.

As I put up the vacuum cleaner, words from an old hymn came to mind -- "Safe and secure from all alarms." That's a phrase from the chorus of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," a hymn we sang in the country churches I attended as a child. If you're not familiar with it, you can read and hear it at Cyberhymnal.

Related:
Another midi of this hymn
And a piano midi version
And one more version

Casper Likes Autumn

Fallen leaves are fun!

Casper attempts to find the leaf that crackled

Lost and Found

Some stories of losing, seeking, and finding

The gospel text at church last Sunday was the first part of Luke 15 -- the parables of the shepherd who leaves the flock and goes to find the lost sheep, and the woman who sweeps her house searching for a lost silver coin. The stories have an underlying spiritual meaning: God is concerned about every individual, and He rejoices when a sinner repents.

Losing and finding was certainly on our minds even before it was preached on at church. Isaac misplaced his iPod last week. He knew it was in the house, but he searched fruitlessly for several days. Finally he thought to look in Keely's room. There it was, on the bed where he had laid it while he was doing some ironing. It is not an exaggeration to say that he rejoiced.

I think the luckiest find I ever made was when I lost the stone out of my engagement ring. When I saw that it was missing, I told myself, "It's gone." I was really surprised a week or so later when I found the diamond in the bottom of the laundry basket.

One of my sadder losses happened when I was living in a college dorm. First, a couple of necklaces were missing, including one that my grandma had given me. Then I accidentally left a ring on our bathroom sink, and when I came back a few hours later, it was gone. I talked to my roommate and the other two girls who shared the bathroom, but they denied any knowledge. After that, I locked my remaining valuables in the closet, an action very similar to locking the barn door after the horse is stolen. I was glad when that semester ended.

In our yard, I've found about a dozen cut glass crystals that look like they came from a chandelier. The man who built this house worked at a factory where they made light fixtures, and I think he must have brought home a few crystals for his children. They played with them outside and either dropped them or forgot where they had put them.

I've never had a flock of sheep, but I've had quite a few pet cats over the years. Kitty, my Bolivian cat, got lost several times. She stayed with my mother-in-law during the five years we were in Germany. At one point, she went missing for a couple of months before she showed up again, looking like a skeleton. Mama Netz thought she must have been locked in someone's shed.

Kitty disappeared another time after she came to live with us in Kentucky. I walked down the roads and out in the woods and pastures calling her name, but I didn't find her. Several weeks later, I was working in the far corner of the yard and I saw a cat walking by. I thought it looked like Kitty, so I spoke to her. She turned and looked at me in total surprise. If I hadn't seen her, she would have kept on walking. I don't think she had any idea that she was near home.

Two thousand years have passed since Jesus told the parables of The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin, but the experiences he relates in them are timeless. We all have lost-and found stories. Who has not experienced sadness and concern when something was lost, and joy and relief when it was found again?

After these two parables, Jesus told his audience a third parable -- The Lost Son (The Prodigal Son.) It's another timeless, poignant story of pain and joy that illustrates God's concern and love for each of us.

Technorati tags: The Lost Sheep, The Lost Silver Coin, The Lost Son, The Prodigal Son, parables, losing things, finding things

Why Cars Are Important

(According to cats!)

Technorati tags: Pet photo

Extreme Cat Moods

Casper, wild and mild

Casper was very excited by this empty soda box. Woe to the human who was silly enough to stray into the reach of his lethal claws.

His eyes caught the full flash of the camera. He really looked like a demon cat before I toned them their green glow with an editing program. Notice that you can see them reflecting on the floor!

He does have his mellow moments, though. (Yes, that's my foot in the photo below.) Casper and I were getting ready to take a nap on the sofa. When he gets relaxed and sleepy, his face looks entirely different. I suppose mine does, too.

Cat Meets Cicadas

Cicadas have emerged in Christian County, Kentucky

Casper observes a pair of vibrating, buzzing, mating cicadas

The loud noise of cicadas is constant right now. I don't know if they ever quiet down. I stay up pretty late at night, but they're still singing when I go to bed.

I've read that cats and dogs sometimes eat so many cicadas that they get sick. Casper doesn't seem to think they are food. He's really not sure what should be done with them. He watches them suspiciously and touches them gingerly. I wonder if maybe he associates buzzing with bumblebees.

Technorati Tags: cicadas, cats, Christian County Kentucky, Christian County KY

Stinky Stuff

All In The Family... More About Birds and Animals... The Rural Life...

I tried some Google searches tonight to see if I could find an explanation of why our cat Skittles likes to roll in powdered cow manure every spring.

I found several discussions of dogs rolling in stinky stuff, but not a single mention of cats indulging in this behavior.

The main theories I read for dogs are:

• a. They enjoy the strong smell and want to wear it. (Variation of this theory: They are so excited when they find a strong smell in large quantity, that they roll in it to celebrate.)
• b. They have an ancient instinct to mask their scent so they can hunt better.
• c. They cover themselves with the scent so when they get back to the pack, everyone will be able to smell the latest dog news.

Skittles has opinions about bad smells. For example, one day after lunch, she found a small piece of cooked broccoli under the table. She checked its smell thoroughly and then tried to scratch the floor and cover it up. Apparently she thought broccoli was something that actually belonged in the litter box. (I agree with her, by the way.)

I'm surprised (or I would be if I weren't accustomed to Skittles's strange ways) that she wants to bury a piece of broccoli, but she will go out to the neighbor's barn and roll in cow manure.

I guess it's Skittles's idea of a refreshing spring tonic! She's well dosed with Frontline, so it shouldn't be a flea control mechanism.

She came inside to eat a couple hours ago, perfumed in Funky Barnyard Essence. I put her back outside. If she doesn't have herself cleaned up when I let her back in, I'll have to wipe her down. My nose and her nose don't have the same preferences.

animal psychology

Pet Food Recall

More About Birds and Animals... Some Interesting News...

I've been listening to the many pet food recalls during the past few weeks, secure in the knowledge that I had enough cat food to last for a while.

The supply is dwindling, though, and I'll have to buy more cat food soon. It's a bit worrisome to do so because of the recalls. I hope that no recalled products are still on the store shelves. I hope that the cat food I buy won't be ruled unfit for consumption after I've already fed it to Skittles and Casper.

The FDA has a page of helpful information about the pet food recalls including a list (supposedly complete) of all the products. Happily, our brand of cat food isn't listed, but over 100 pet foods have been recalled.

I read today that the FDA is investigating whether the contamination of the Chinese grain products (wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate in the U.S. and corn gluten in South Africa) may have been intentional in order to make the protein content appear higher.

"Melamine was found in all three of those — it would certainly lend credibility to the theory that it may be intentional. That will be one of the theories we will pursue when we get into the plants in China," Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's chief veterinarian, told reporters.

Chinese authorities have told the FDA that the wheat gluten was an industrial product not meant for pet food, Sundlof said. Still, melamine can skew test results to make a product appear more protein-rich than it really is, he added. That raises the possibility the contamination was deliberate. (Source)

Young Prince Casper strolls through his domain

Technorati tags: pet food recall, pet food, pets

Cedar Waxwings Update

More About Birds and Animals...

Skittles tried to jump through the window a few minutes after I took this photo. Ordinarily, she understands and respects glass, but she was momentarily carried away by her instincts as she watched the cedar waxwings hopping around in the branches just a few feet from her.

I took this photo Saturday morning, and that was the last day that I saw the waxwings. The pyracantha bushes are now completely stripped of berries, so I'm sure they have moved on. It will be interesting to see if they come back next year.



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cedar waxwings

A year ago on Prairie Bluestem, I wrote about "A Beautiful Old House" and "The War-Time Guide Book."