smitten by a kitten

It started innocently enough. We stopped at our neighbor's house to talk about baling some small square bales of hay for us again this year.  We were so tickled to find someone in the neighborhood that was still baling small square bales.

Most farmers only make large round bales nowadays, since everybody (except us) owns a skid steer.  If making hay by yourself, large rounds are the way to go, since you can  move them mechanically.  For those of us without any large equipment, small squares are an absolute requirement.

Without a tractor, rake, baler or skid steer, we have to rely on other farmers with equipment to come and do the job for us.  Their pay is half of the harvest.

{Doing it "for halves," is what they call it.}

Because our hay needs are small, this works well for us, and we still get enough extra hay to sell every year.

As we stood around in the kitchen talking about hay cutting patterns and how many days to dry the hay before baling, she found us.  A small Siamese kitten with dark points, a cream mustache, and a gigantic purr.

Papa Bear picked her up right away.  She was extremely friendly.

It was then it happened.  Our hay guy asks, "Would you like to keep her?  She's a barn cat that we had to bring in this winter because she got too skinny.  She's yours if you want her!"

Uh oh.

We left the hay guy's house without her, but a week later we found ourselves asking each other, "have you thought about that Siamese kitten at all?"

Both of us had been.

{Smitten by a kitten}

Then we got to talking and thinking.  When we got Mojo in 2004, we talked about getting a kitten every 5 years, so we'd always have a young cat around whenever we had an old cat.

Our pattern was cut a bit short when we moved to Lindstrom in 2008 and found a tortoise shell calico kitten wandering the woods by our house. We kept her. (Kali)

Then a year later, our daughter brought home two barn cats and we ended up keeping one of them - Zoey.

We were full of cats.

But that was five years ago.  It was time for a new kitten to inject some exuberance into the household and the older cats.

And here she was.

So last weekend we called up our hay guy and asked if the offer still stood.  It did.  And less than an hour later, we brought our new kitten home.

The older cats are less than enthused about her.  But they'll grow to love her.

We're sure of it.

Cheers -