Carla the Barn Cat
Wishes You a Happy New Year
As requested by one of my esteemed readers in the comments section of a previous post, here is a post dedicated to our barn cat, Carla.
Most mornings, Carla the barn cat can be found at the back door. Sometimes she is waiting on breakfast, but other times she is just asking for attention. You can see her meowing through the glass door.
She does enjoy some snuggles from the kids. They like having a pet that doesn’t run from their affection: ahem: sheep, chickens, ducks, and bunnies!
After catching someone’s attention, she will persuade one of her many admirers to race her to the barn for breakfast. This is why her nickname is Carla the little cheetah. She is very fast and always wins.
The rest of the day you can find her lounging. This summer, she spent a lot of time on our porch swing. She would snooze for hours, always looking purr-fectly relaxed. Now she has also become more comfortable in the barn as we put a cushion on a chair for her in there. We have also found that she sleeps in the hay.
She does like a good snooze.
One day the girls thought she needed her own stuffy. I’m not sure she agrees.
Carla: This'N'That Family Farm Supervisor
Sometimes I believe that Carla thinks she is in the role of supervisor. She does seem to hang about and watch us work, no matter the season. She supervises everything from raking to building. She monitors loud projects from afar. She even works in the vegetable garden. She oversaw us tying things down for Autumn; check out the post.
Carla at work in the barn. She had been very good at her job.
You might wonder what Carla thinks of the other animals on the farm. After she moved in, I hoped she would make friends with the sheep or chickens, but she is afraid of the chickens and keeps her distance from the sheep. She completely ignores the bunnies, but she is very friendly with her people.
Carla hanging out with us in the barn during chores.
Carla's snow paw prints
Carla had been fixed before she came to live with us, but sometimes she still disappears for a few days at a time. We have to keep an eye out for signs that she is around... like these paw prints she left in the snow after our first snow storm. Or if her food is eaten out of the bowl.
In the evening is when our little cheetah likes to hunt. She can be pretty well camouflaged and sometimes we don’t spot her. But this time she hung out with us as the skies darkened and we finished our chores.
The kids can tell when she is hunting. One clue is when she doesn’t come when she is called. The other is how her tail twitches right as she has her eye on some tasty prey.
Carla makes appearances here and there on our blog. Check out some other posts to see how Carla is integrated on our family farm. The picture below shows Carla dressed up for Christmas. Check out that post: Christmas on the Farm.
Carla is an important member of our family and our farm. We are so glad we have her here with us. She is such a sweet and loving cat and is good at the job we hired her to do.
Happy New Year from Carla and the entire Castonguay this’n’that family farm!
