I Sat With The Cat

 

I Sat With the Cat

Not to get all Seussy or anything, but this morning I sat on the cement next to the garage with our cat, Barney. We’ve had a number of cats over the years but now Barney is the sole survivor, and he is showing his age.


He is named Barney because he lives in our barn. Before he belonged to us, he belonged to someone else, which we know because he had been “fixed” (a poor choice of words) when we found him. Or when he found us. I was up in the barn loft on a winter night when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I asked, “Is there a cat up here?” It turns out there was, and he meowed very conversationally for several minutes.

It was a month or more before he’d hang around with us. We started to feed him on some very cold winter nights, even though he’d been fending for himself for who knows how long. Our horse vet at the time gave the cat his shots and verified that he was neutered. Then we named him (the cat, not the vet) Barney.

He has unhappily coexisted with a few other barn cats who arrived as kittens. They eventually disappeared. Our inside cats got old and passed away, so there remains Barney.

As I sat on the cement in the sun he bumped me repeatedly and made some of the nice cat sounds he makes. I petted him. When I looked at the sunlit concrete it occurred to me that from that perspective it looked exactly like it will look in July. Everything around that spot on the driveway will be green then instead of white from yesterday’s snow, but with my focus on the spot on the cement and the cat, it could have been any time of the year.

It's nice hanging around with Barney. I don’t know how long he was feral between his previous owner and us, but I think it was a long time. He really seems to enjoy belonging to someone. He even seems to appreciate us taking him to the vet the few times he’s been sick or injured. And, while he’s mostly solitary, he seems to enjoy being with us.

When the garden season starts I hope old Barney is still around to sit in the shade near where I’m weeding or preparing the soil to plant. He’s a good listener, whether it’s to what I’m saying or what I’m thinking. He and I have worked through some things. And he has never once judged me.

March is a good month for reflecting on summers and gardens of the past. Soon it will be April when I plant seeds indoors and Barney and I wonder when the gardening season will start again.

I am an introvert who seeks recognition, but only a little bit. I live in Southern Wisconsin and yes, I do enjoy cheese and a half-dozen or so beers each year. Somehow I found someone willing to marry me back in 1976, and so far so good. We have children and grandchildren and they are all really something.

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