It’s me again, Fuzzy the farm protector.

Guard work is really a very hard job, especially when you add in the fact that Checkers is getting on in years -now don’t say that very loud because she maintains she is still a young adult. She’s been a young adult ever since I got here and I’ve been here a goodly little while now.

 Now don’t get me wrong Checkers does a good job of guarding her patio and her dog house and her dog dish, oh yes and she is real good at taking care of all the little McCormick kids, but it’s really me that patrols the property.

Why their house part of the farm, and I am in charge of farm security, which means I go down to their place at least once a day and check out what’s happening. Sometimes I can get Checkers to go exploring with me, but she thinks real exercise is cat chasing.

That A.L.W.A.Y.S. gets her in trouble. I use to help her, but when I saw how much trouble she would get in I decided it was best for my reputation to NOT chase cats.

And anyway, I know that being locked into the pen is a threat I don’t want to ever push. Unless, of course, Security Shasha comes back, but Mom told me not to hold my breath on that thought.

Anyway, I thought I would tell you about some of my duties: like barking at the mailman, keeping the birds off the trees and fences, but I already told you that one, or maybe the time something died way over on the hillside and I got to roll in the lovely sweet smell of the carcass.

As I was lying on my back, rolling around on the grass, paws up in the air, having a really good scratch on the back it dawned on me that I really should let you meet ‘all of the cats’.

Four cats live at Misty’s and two live at our house.

That makes six cats I’m in charge of protecting, not to mention chickens, cows, goats, ducks and all the fence lines.

I’ll do Misty’s cats first, because three of the fur balls insist on walking over, with Misty and the kids, to my house and tormenting me by Misty letting them go inside house. Makes Monkey and Sammy upset also, if they get too upset though Mom throws them outside. In order to not get thrown out they hide under the furniture and sass at the other cats.

Something is really wrong with Mom; she lets all kinds of animals come visit. I’ve tried to reason with her, but she doesn’t hear. Dad says Mom has selective hearing.

Okay, first there is Aphro, short for Aphrodite, which Mom made sure she really didn’t become (she had the visit to the vet we All got to experience.) Aphro is the oldest cat on the place and she knows it. She is the queen.

Then there is Odie, now that is one tough cat, between him and Sammy my work at guarding the fence line is pretty much a breeze. The problem with Odie, though, is he really only guards the house property and the corrals. And he only guards against other cats. Sort of useless when it comes to some real enemy, like a fox or raccoon.

I decided to go by age so Sammy is the next oldest. He lives with us. Now that is one amazing cat. I come across Sammy clear at the upper end, what he is doing up there beats me. He says he is hunting. Hunting for what…I guess I will never know.

Then we have Dad’s cat. Geez, this cat never leaves the house unless Dad lets her out. She won’t go. Will claw her way back in as the door is opened. Sammy even brings her mice, hollers for her and unless DAD lets her out she won’t go. When she is outside she hangs around Dad, lays in the sunshine, and explores. But never very far away from where ever Dad is.

Twister was a feral cat that was mauled horribly as a kitten, rescued by Mom so Misty could have another cat. You can’t tell but Twister is a Maine Coon Cat. She is a friendly soul and seems really grateful to still be in one piece and loves living with the little kids. (I like the little kids also; they just get to be a little much when they want to drag me all over the place with the leash.)

The last to arrive was O’Malley. O’Malley is, well, O’Malley is just the best cat in the whole world. I even let her sit on my back sometimes. But O’Malley is a busy girl, she doesn’t like to lie around much unless she is taking a nap on Blade’s bed, the rest of the time she has things to do and places to see and games to play with the kids, Twister, and me.

She even likes to have Checkers chase her.

Well, these are the cats of the place. Just like any job it’s the people you work with which add dimension to your work.

It’s not every dog who gets to patrol 80 acres and a herd of cats.

Fuzzy