Last night, before we went to bed, Art went to the barn to check on the chickens and to see if he could find the weasel (we're pretty sure it's a weasel, thanks to Google). He had put the dead chickens in a barrel on the bed of his pick-up truck near the shop (until he could properly dispose of them) and went to check on those as well to make sure there were no other creatures skulking around. When he neared the truck he heard a plaintive meowing from underneath; a little kitten was sitting underneath the truck. The rest of this story is so adorable I almost can't stand it:

Art walked over to the kitten, bent down and opened his arms to the kitten in a gesture of, It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you. He said the kitten immediately leaped into his arms and started purring. Art put the kitten in the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt, brought him (or her, who can tell?) inside and fed it some warm milk and sweet potato casserole. He then took the kitten to his shop with a blanket and made a bed for it.

This morning, Art went out to check on the kitten and found him (her) around the shop. He brought him/her inside to show me but to also heat up more milk and sweet potato casserole which he then fed to the kitten on my kitchen counter (which was cleaned as soon as the kitten was taken outside again).

It's a very sweet little kitten and Art said there is another one running around the barn, but it isn't as friendly. It's small but seems well fed and there is no sign of the mother, so we're not sure if they're 'real' farm cats or just cats that were dropped off in the country by some a-hole. I can't believe how often this happens; people think they want a kitten and then change their minds or get to a point where they can no longer have a cat, but instead of dropping it off at a shelter, they think they just drop them off in the country and think the cat will survive. I've said it before and I'll say it again- domesticated housecats cannot survive in the wild. 'Barn' cats are born and raised in barns, having been taught by their mothers to hunt for food. Just a little FYI- while animal shelters and Humane Societies are incredibly under-funded, many will accept animals without charging a fee.

I don't know what we'll do with this little guy; I don't want a fully-clawed cat in my house (although it would nice to have a mouser) but it's getting colder outside and winter is coming. Art had this idea of making it his 'shop cat'. I think he's disappointed that Buddy won't hang out in the shop with him- whenever Buddy is out there he trembles and is just generally anxious. So I think Art is going to work on that while I research how teach kittens to be self-sufficient.