A year or so ago my last hunting dog got run over. Why, I’ve had hunting dogs since I was five years old and I felt a void in my life. But not having a dog or a pet to feed, and take care of, can be a blessing in its own way. If’en you’ve ever owned hunting dogs or pets, you know there’s a lot of work, time and money involved and so I decided not to get back into it for a while.
Just so happened that following spring I was planting my garden and I heard this meowing sound coming from the edge of the woods. As I went up and down the garden rows, I spotted this thin tabby female cat, making her way into my garden. Being a hunter, most of my life, I never thought much of cats, never was mean to them neither, but until this time I had never owned but one cat in my life time.
When the cat saw me, she turned and ran back into the woods. Well, I still didn’t think much about it until late that evening when I was throwing some table scraps out along the wood line. As I turned to go back to the house, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. There was that same skinny cat making her way to the food scraps. I watched her for a while as she gobbled the scraps down and then ran back into the woods.
This went on for several weeks until the cat must have decided I was her meal ticket and came close enough for me to pet her.
Every day I would reach out and pet the cat, and somehow it seemed as if we bonded, even though I knew better than to take in a stray cat.
As time went by, I started buying cat food and feeding the stray cat off my deck. My wife was dead set against taking the cat in. She said, “It won’t be long and that cat will have a whole litter of kittens”, and as it turned out, she was absolutely correct.
Within a few months my only cat disappeared for a while, only to return with five kittens in toe. Three of the kittens were different colors while two were twins and all were so playful and cute.
As time went by, in less than a year, my kittens were having kittens.
My wife strongly urged me to take the whole kit and caboodle of cats to the pound. I wished many times I would have but I just couldn’t find it in heart to do it. I seemed to find playing with the kittens was a good stress reliever, even though I got scratched several times.
I didn’t realize it at the time but Mother Nature has her own way of taking care of things. Enter the neighbor’s two pit-bulls roaming the neighborhood!!! These dogs were as friendly as could be to humans but they hated a cat with a passion. Why they made it their daily job to run my cats under a building or up a tree.
As vacation time rolled around this past summer, we were gone to the beach for a week. I left plenty of cat food and water out for the cats and to tell you the truth I wasn’t really worried about them.
The day we returned from vacation though, nary a cat was to be found. All the food and water was gone and I figured they would return later that night.
The next morning I was in a hurry to go pay some bills but as I went out onto the deck, I still didn’t see no cats, so I just went and got in my pick-up which was parked close to the deck.
Folks, you ain’t gonna believe what happened when I cranked my truck. Why, all of a sudden, billows of oil smoke and the smell of fresh oil filled the cab. I immediately cut the truck off and raised the hood. To my disbelief, the engine was covered in black engine oil and it was running out on the ground. With more investigation, I found that a hole had been chewed in my oil filter and pieces of electrical wires were dangling from under the truck. Even the mud flaps had been chewed off the front of the truck. What on earth had happened???
Well, I was in a hurry, so I jumped in my other truck which was parked farther out in the yard. I cranked it up; only to have the eight-cylinder truck running on about six cylinders and the check-engine light staying on. Raising the hood, I found two plug wires had been pulled off the plugs. Plugging them up did make the truck run better but still the check-engine light stayed on.
I got to thinking, could all my truck problems be coming from them two dogs chasing my cats under the trucks? What else could it be?!?
Even though I changed the oil and filter, it cost me over four hundred dollars to get my trucks repaired. I ain’t never in my life seen so much damage to trucks that were sitting still and not bothering a thing.
Why, it won’t long before both them Pit-Bulls done and disappeared and thank the Lord; I then had nothing to pet or feed.
So, as I mentioned earlier, Mother Nature always take care of itself, cause the other day I could have sworn I heard a meow down around my garden. Lord, I surely hope not!!!