Barn Cats!

      The farm of my childhood usually had a contingent of barn cats. They lived in the barn because Dad would not tolerate them in the vicinity of the house. For the most part they were quite tame. They'd quickly adapt if we squirted milk at them while we were milking the cows.  They'd open their mouths and lap the milk. After separating the cream from the milk we'd give them some milk. There was a small room that held the cream separator and there was space under it that they occupied. In the coldest days of winter the milk cows were left inside overnight. Their body heat was sufficient to keep the temperature in the barn above freezing. 

   Once a disease decimated the cat population and they all died; distemper maybe. When the cats were gone mice appeared. Mice were seen throughout the barn. When the cats are gone the mice will play. This was a revelation, we'd never realized the role the cats played in managing the rodents.

   One summer night I decided to sleep in the haymow. Sleeping on the new hay was very comfortable and I slept well, until.....  Until, early in the morning cats chased grasshoppers over me. No need for an alarm clock. Dad went to the haymow early one morning a found a man sleeping there. He'd wandered up from U.S. Highway 81, that ran just below our place.

   Then, there's the well travelled cat. Uncle Henry and Aunt Inga lived across the road from us. Uncle Alfred and Aunt Ragna lived twelve miles away. Ragna needed a cat so Inga gave her one. Alfred put the cat in a burlap bag and placed the bag in the trunk of their car for the ride to Ragna's place. It disappeared from Ragna's in a day or two. Two weeks later it arrived back at Inga's. There it stayed.

Takk for alt,

Al

Negstad cousins, children and spouses in front of our farm house.