Barnyard foul

Barnyard Foul

In our little world at Long Bow Ranch we often run across strange animal relationships.

There is a gray squirrel that robs the hen’s house and then races to the top of the roof and attempts to crow every morning and while doing so forgets once she opens her mouth to crow the egg quickly rolls off the shingles and splats on the ground.  [Personally, I think if it were a crow it would have much more beneficial results].

But the oddest animal relationship is in our pig pen.  The barnyard cat has had a litter every year every since we collected her (not sure exactly how that happened) now that it has been six or more years.  Nevertheless this year the cat came up missing just after the last batch of kittens.  We had to administer the formula by hand using those little bottles like out of a baby doll set for a little girls.

That is, all except one kitten.  This kitten developed the governing care of one of our sows and still is close to her even though she no longer suckles.  Then when the kitten was about 9 months old the worst happened!  The mother pig got sick and we had to put her down.  After that the little cat would wander around the barnyard mewing and searching for her lost surrogate parent.

One day not too long after the demise of the [surrogate] sow we were set to butcher one of our other pigs.  It was not out of the ordinary to butcher a steer and a pig at least once a year.

All set up in the barnyard, the rope around the pig’s neck and the .22 ready to aim at animal’s brain we waited until the veterinarian brought back the latest medical report for parasites.  With pigs you can never be too careful.

Just about the time we are ready to proceed, the near adult kitten races through the barnyard.  She jumps on the back of the sow and spits and fusses at the rope.  Then she lights to the ground and runs up to the field boss and hisses at him.  Spitting and hissing she tears around the barnyard until she has the pig all worked up.  The pig charges and snaps the rope.  The pig and the cat both run through the barnyard enclosure.

Amazed, we watch as they go!  Pig crashing though the fence and the cat on its heels…. 

It was several days later our pig was identified by a neighbor and when we arrived to pick it up the cat was asleep, encircled in the snout and front legs of the old girl. 

Needless to say, this pig and cat continue to live out their days at Long Bow Ranch.