WE NEED A CAT

No, that's really not our Lucifer, that picture is just a reasonable facsimile, we could never get our cat to hold still for a photo shoot!  Too wily. 

Accidentally, I found out you can apply for a feral barn cat at the Humane Society.  There's a waiting list, I was number 3.

You see, we've always had a neighborhood feral cat and it ate the mice in the wood piles and kept other critters at bay.  Well, when the neighbor decided to move, she took that cat to the Humane Society.  Why?  I didn't understand.  Needless to say we were perturbed.

Since then we've had an abundance of mice, some chipmunks, and a snake eating the frogs in our pond.  Ugh.  We need a cat!

So, when I found out about free barn cats, it seemed just the thing.  They called, said they had a couple and we could choose between Quartz, a painfully shy black 3 month old, or Lucius, a backward gray 1 year old.  We chose Lucius because John said he wanted an aggressive cat which would more likely do the job.

In the white cardboard box carrier he went, traveling in the back, and meowing the whole time.  At home, John filled the bowls with water and cat food and tucked in a nice towel, while I suggested he put a tablespoon of cat food inside the dog house so Lucius would know that's home.  Well, let me tell you, upon opening that box two things happened.

He hissed!

He fled!

We didn't see him until the next morning.  He was avoiding eye contact as he snuck out of his heat lamp lit new home.  He now skulks along the side of the house behind the burning bush, sneaks around the back deck, and lightly steps sniffing at the front steps.  There's no petting.  And no responding to cat calls!

Yesterday morning I saw this big hulk of a shadow on top of the dog house.  With short pointy ears I thought, "Wow, that's a big owl.  Must be watching for mice in the field."  Then it turned.  Green eyes!  LUCIFER!

His name was changed because we're no innocents.  Wildness and hissing confirms that Lucius is Lucifer.  And John laughs at taking the blame for letting Lucifer out into the world!