The Cats Part 2: Lefty

When we moved here in November 2004 it didn't take us long to notice that a little gray cat was sitting on the deck looking in the door at us. We questioned the previous owners of the house and they responded with "we feed him but he's not ours" followed by "if we could have caught him we would have taken him with us." They must not have tried very hard because it only took me a few days to be able to catch him. Anyway, the cat that was left behind became known as Lefty and has been our barn cat ever since.

It didn't take us long to realize that Lefty was running with a much younger black kitten. She was pretty wild and we called her Spooky (see the picture above). Around Thanksgiving Spooky disappeared. I waited another month or so to make sure he was really staying, and then hauled Lefty into work for vaccines and neutering.

In the first few years we had him Lefty would often spend a large amount of time roaming and sometimes we would not see him for days at a time. As soon as I was sure he was gone forever he would come trotting home again. These days however he spends more time at home and is almost always waiting with the other barn cat for breakfast-they are dieting right now and thus always quite hungry in the morning.

Lefty is a shy but sweet cat, most people cannot catch him or get near him and he runs and hides if there is any noise or much activity around the barn. He is a pretty good bird hunter, although we would prefer he catch mice and moles!