Time to Fess Up I Guess

Well one of my readers finally noticed and asked about my supervisor or more to the point the lack of mentioning her lately. There is no way to sugar coat this she was hit by a vehicle and killed almost two months ago now. It happened during the warm stretch we got back in December while I was working on my Mother's little house. She was helping me measure out and cut the paneling. I remember it vividly because she kept knocking my hat off and jumping on my shoulder while I was working and would then follow me inside and explore. She was being really pushy that day for attention and aggravating Mom when I stopped to give it to her.

I got called into work and when Piglet (what I called her. Her name was actually Penelope) figured out I was leaving she went to the garden and hayfield to hunt which is what she always did when the weather was nice.

When I got back home that afternoon she was laying by the road out front. I covered it up for a few days to keep from upsetting the Mrs.  but when she figured it out I had to come clean.

With all the stray and unwanted cats we get dumped on us the loss of one may not seem like much but this particular cat was special. We have rules around here and I try not to get too attached to the barn cats. If we can't find a home for them they get fixed. The one good thing I can say about the animal rights people is they hand out those $25.00 spay and neuter vouchers like candy. Occasionally a barn cat will disappear.  Not much we can do about it most of them are half feral anyway and would climb the walls if we tried to make them full blown pets. We capture and take em to the vet each year and if one is injured we make sure it gets treated and we feed em and that's about it.

Yet every so often one manages to wiggle it's way in close and becomes a full blown pet. Piglet was at the top of that food chain at least as far as it went with me.

The other rule we have about our pets is only those who have proven they are smart enough to stay away from the road get to come and go as they please. Usually this breaks down to the females get to come and go and the neutered males don't. It also depends on the time of day. The two Males are allowed out after 7PM when there is no traffic but the two females were always allowed to come and go whenever they wished no matter what time of day. For three years now Piglet has never shown one bit of interest in heading towards the road. She rarely left the deck unless she was following me and if she did leave it was only to go to the garden or hayfield. Believe me I used to spy on her too just to see and she never went to the road. She had also graduated up from a barn cat and never showed any interest or was ever seen near the road then either.

This last Fall Piglet did begin to show a focused interest in hunting mice though, much more so than the other cats and I think that is what got her killed because she had hunted out the nearby hayfield and I think the tall grass across the road was too much temptation for her. I can only guess that her lack of experience in dealing with speeding cars, the fact that the cars out there come screaming down the road at 90+ miles an hour and the up tick in traffic due to the lower gas prices sealed her fate that day.

So I have lost my constant feline companion. Pretty much every post I have made for the last few years was done with her perched across my shoulder except when she was raising her kittens. Every evening without fail I would hear her coming from two rooms away her purring was so loud and she would jump up on my shoulder and go to sleep. I still find myself wondering where she is occasionally. Every afternoon if I had been inside the storage or out buildings I would have to go figure out which one she had sneaked into if I didn't see her and every morning she was waiting by the door ready to go work on whatever I was working on that day. I had to be careful if I moved anything heavy, threw a log, backed up a vehicle or whatever to be sure she wasn't in the way and I still find myself checking for her even now.

Anyway I thought since the lack of mention had been noticed it was time to fess up. I seriously doubt I will have another supervisor any time soon it seems to be more of a female trait with the cats around here than a male one and we only have one female cat now. The Queen used to do the job before Piglet but these days she has reached a point of complete laziness and sometimes doesn't even move for weeks I think. She never was very affectionate either always preferred to be roughed up not petted. She used to hunt though and bring me her kills but that stopped some time ago. The Queen actually prefers my son's company anyway she is kinda a true cougar when it comes to males.

I try not to be too sappy and sentimental but Piglet deserves a eulogy on the blog. Hell she pretty much helped write it for the last few years.

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