Pudgy's bad day

A good barn cat is a necessity on a farm.....mice would run amuck around here, if it were not for our 2 barns cats, that are extremely skilled hunters.

Our barn cats are a little different than average though ( according to visitors to our farm ) they actually act more like a couple of good dogs....course, they are well cared for, and very well loved. I named them lovely names when I brought them home as kittens...Clarissa and Marissa...Their names quickly morphed into "Pudgy {the larger of the two } and Fuzzy { the runt of the litter }" they look a whole lot alike, but their personalities separate them more than anything. Clarissa ( Pudge ) is a lap cat...no doubt about it! if you are setting down, she will come for miles ( in cat measurement ) to hop up into your lap..there is none of that sneaking around, pretending you are not interested, with Pudge, she makes a straight line to you, and hops up whether you want her or not! Marissa (Fuzzy) is the horse lover in the family...if there is a horse stalled or in our arena, she stays there. She even has slept right in the stall with an injured horse before...esp when the boys are gelded, she spent 2 days in the stall with Dark Knight when we gelded him last year.

We feed the cats each morning....Pudge is often in our garage, Fuzz comes to the barn from the arena, or...if there is no one to babysit, she will join her sister in the garage...

Two weeks ago Sunday, I headed down to feed the cats....only Fuzzy showed up, certainly not uncommon for them to be away from the barn, out on a hunt..so, I thought nothing of it.
When I fed Monday morning, and still no Pudge...I gave it some thought, but not much. Either one of the cats has had a span of a few days when they have been AWOL, only to return to a seeming normal cat schedule.

Monday evening Mike and I hopped in our spa.....we use our spa every evening..often at dusk, to watch the stars come out...A good share of the time, the cats appear at this hour....sitting on the rail above us, they seem to enjoy the ritual as much as we do.

While in the spa....we could hear a "meow" certainly nothing unusual...Fuzzy usually meows alot and often comes to the spa from a distance, meowing all the way...so, we waited...we could hear the meow again...hmmmmm ? The wind was just howling that night...and we were actually NOT even sure we heard a meow...so, we waited and listened...again..."meow"......I peered over the edge of the spa, thinking a cat had to be close...but no cat....hmmmm ?

and...suddenly Mike said "Do you think one of the cats is under the house? the wind had blown the cover off, and I put it back on....on Saturday afternoon?" so, we busted out of the spa, headed to the back yard, removed the cover, and out came Pudgy......no worse for wear physically....but a little out of sorts mentally....she would NOT leave the porch the rest of the night...she even ran in the house door, which she never does normally...they are not allowed in the house...

By the next day Pudgy seemed back to normal....she had a big adventure...we are certainly glad she said something...otherwise she might still be under there looking for mice ;-)