“Seriously, you’ve wandered off again?!” That’s not me speaking – it’s Fluffy admonishing me with that exasperated look. Fluffy, the cat pictured above, is one of the cats who accompanies me to the mailbox or comes to fetch me when I’m out in the field, as evidenced in the photo. (Isn’t that a scolding expression reprimanding me for having wandered out into the field without him?) This trait, whether exhibited as companion or protector, occurs (in my experience) in the cat family primarily in males. The exception: the two affectionate and tame females who arrived here on their own. Whether they were dropped off somewhere by their owners or wandered away from home is unknown, but I think the latter is unlikely. The only time they leave the yard here is when following me while I do chores or work on a project. In general, if you’re looking for a cat who behaves more like a dog, a male is a better bet; it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not they have been neutered. That bonding, though, may not be spontaneous and immediate, but rather build up over years as they learn to trust you. We’ll talk more about the personality of the cat, later.

Introduction

In the beginning, lost, abandoned, and stray dogs were the ones who found their way here. When neighbors found errant or abandoned dogs, they’d call me for help. Finally, I raised my eyes heavenward and pleaded, “No more dogs.”

At the same time, mice – a variety I’d thought to be field mice but was later told by the CDC were house mice (yeah, there’s a reason I was talking with an expert from the CDC) were attracted to the scratch grains fed to 100 chickens, and found comfy dwelling places in the chicken houses and in the barn that housed cattle and horses. You know what it smells like when a dead mouse in a hidden recess of your car heats up on a hot summer day? Or how it feels to pick up a tool in the toolshed and find that it’s sticky and damp? Enough is enough. Finally, one day outdoors I had the temerity to say out loud, “These rodents have to go.”

A word of advice: when asking the Universe for something, first think of every conceivable quirk that could accompany the granting of your request, and be very, very specific about your goal. Let me digress for a moment to show you what I mean. One day at work, two or three of the ladies were talking about men and dating. I added this to the conversation: “I’d like a nice, cute guy to fix my toilet tank flapper.” I had been turning the valve to allow water to flow to the toilet, then shutting the valve again, for each use. Within a couple of weeks after that discussion in the office, I’d been talked into taking in a young cat. I was peering into the unfamiliar innards of the non-stop running toilet tank when the cat jumped up onto the counter adjacent to the commode, took a quicker-than-the-eye swipe at something within the tank, and it immediately quit running. The remaining problem was that I hadn’t seen what he had done. I adjusted my desire, spoke it aloud, and the next time I was peering into the toilet tank wondering what young Fitty had done, he repeated his performance, but slowly enough this time to allow me to see what he did. Two lessons learned: (1) the method to close the flapper that allows water to flow from the tank into the bowl, and (2) be very specific in your requests to the Universe. Technically, Fitty was a “nice, cute guy” who fixed the issue with the toilet tank flapper.

This brings us back to, “these rodents have to go.” I had tried traps both home-constructed and store-bought. Hawks didn’t come close enough to the buildings to catch the problem mice. Owls? They couldn’t get inside the pens or chicken houses. At one point I had hopes for a non-poisonous snake seen in the yard, but the UPS guy drove over it. The ultimate solution: cats.

There’s a certain joy to be experienced when your tools and other items in a shed or garage are no longer covered in fresh mouse droppings and urine. And when the odor of dead mouse nest has faded from your car. But, too, there can be much heartache, frustration, and a feeling of helplessness when illness runs through the cat population. Or when finding telltale remains of a disappeared cat just feet from a tree or from coyote tracks in the mud at the edge of the stock pond.

As with most things in life, the family of cats brings both heartache and joy. I want to stress the joy, the friendship and laughter. In these days of safer-at-home pandemic, these furry friends are my resident family.

Website Purpose/Goals

First, this site is created to share the joys and insights brought to me by my little furry friends. (A book is likely forthcoming; what would you like to see in it?)

Second, to share the possible parallels between a cat coronavirus and COVID-19. (Aspects of COVID-19 that surprise doctors and scientists don’t surprise me at all.)

Third, to allow you the opportunity to virtually adopt a cat. There will be photos and detailed descriptions of each unique personality. It may take a bit of time to complete them, as there are at least forty, and possibly close to sixty.

Disclaimer: Web page development tools and templates go through rapid evolution, and I’m trying a new product with this site. While it has some nice features to make content creation, formatting, and editing more straightforward, it seems impossible to make a home page whose url doesn’t include extra verbiage tacked onto the end (a “slug”). Somehow, the page at https://wildwhiskers.net became an orphaned “page” not included as a page and treated only as a post. So, please forgive attempts (having varying degrees of success) at making a cohesive whole of this site. The workaround has been to edit the post and include the site url in two of the menus; the consequence of having done that is duplication of the other pages in one of the menus created by the template.

Thank you for viewing!