Cats

For those of my blogger friends who have followed for awhile, you probably remember BubbaLee.

Here she is about 7 years ago.   I first caught her two kittens, found them homes, watched her carousing around with "Bunny Nose" aka Pete, and with Lois, caught her next 5 kittens, found them homes.

Eventually, we caught HER, and got her spayed.

She's been around her since spring 2010.  Sometimes she would be gone for days, but she would always return.  I've fed her, given her a heated place to sleep in the barn, but never in all this time has she let me or Lois near enough to touch her.

Fast forward to this summer.
"Goldie" who I think is a boy, but who might not be, has been hanging around for a year, to the point now that  he really just lives here.   He is never gone for more than an hour.  And usually if you call to him, he comes out from some hiding place.

I really do think he is an older cat, and for some reason became homeless.

But he seems quite content to be here.  He also has a heated house in the barn, and regular meals.

One night I went out to close the outside gate to the chicken run...even though there is an automatic door on the chicken coop, I like to create one more barrier to intruders, so every night at dusk, I go out to close that door.

Goldie greets me and follows me, and throws himself down in front of me, to get some attention......and while I am scratching his ears, and petting him, I hear "meow, meow".

I look around, and BubbaLee is staring at me from under my car.  So I said, "well, come here then, if you want some attention".

And lo, and behold, after SEVEN years of being untouchable, here she comes.

So what has transpired in the last couple of weeks is this:

Any time you go outside, they are there, together.

They want to be loved.
And they are.

 They have something to say, and I listen.

They have decided that this is an ok, safe place, and it is.

They tolerate each other, but he defers to her every time.

She's the boss.
I think he's ok with that.

He is definitely more comfortable with me.

As evidenced by his ability to sleep at my feet.

I zoomed in here, and see that he doesn't have a lot of teeth.

But he thinks he likes TEA.

BubbaLee is not far behind him in feeling comfortable though.

Obviously.

 I don't think her teeth are in great shape either, so they split a can of cat food every morning, in addition to dry food all day.

Three inside cats, two outside cats.

And I always thought I was a "dog" person.

Guess all these rescue cats had other ideas.