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The Second Farm Animal: Two Cats

We Never Thought…

Honestly, if someone told us we would have multiple kittens or cats one day, we would’ve said “nope”. And we would have been right…mostly. We’ve had dogs in the past, but no cats.

On our farm, we say that we don’t have any pets. Everything that comes onto the farm has meaningful work to do – people, animals, and tools alike. And pets don’t fit into that category for us, at least not yet.

Sometimes we consider something to be meaningful that is simply beautiful, like a flower or a piece of art. Or rarely – and let’s emphasize rarely – a fancy, fluffy chicken! And sometimes these beautiful things help remind us, among our regular work of caring for creation and those around us, that God’s creation IS beautiful, and that WE are beautiful in his sight.

The cats for us are “mousers,” which means they help control the mice around the farm. The old saying goes “skinny cats make good farm cats” because the cats need to find food, and that food is the mice they catch. Yes, we feed them a small amount. But not enough for them to forget their role on the farm.

So Ashes arrived as the very first farm kitten, and over time we added others and have had several litters of farm kittens born and raised and either sold or kept for farm duties. Sadly, some of them disappear due to predators during nighttime, but thankfully we have always had as many as we need.

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