Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Thursday, April 3, 2014

Taking the barncat to the vet - 4chan style

Our lean, mean, rat hunting machine.

For the record, I do not advocate 4chan. Don't go there. Just... don't. But I do love their way of storytelling. I thought it was appropriate for the telling of how I took our barncat, Shine to the vet the other day.

>snatch up barncat, Shine, and shove him in carrier 
>he starts screaming as soon as we start the drive - the long drive
>'dont worry Little Bro, i know that feels' i tell him
>he screams louder, i drive faster
>10 minutes into the hour long drive i start to smell something bad. real bad.
>'dang, son, wut you been eating?'
>it smells like he's been eating rotten rats that have only ever eaten rotten indian food 
>my eyes start to water, open the window 
>hang head out the window - it's that bad
>blow out my too-short ponytail
>Shine's screams are now just humiliated whimpers
>drive even faster - finally get there
>arriving at the vet with a blown out ponytail and a slightly poop covered cat. not awesome.
>'dang, OFG, what stinks? is that you?' ha ha vet reception girl
>drag Shine out of carrier - hand vet tech poopy carrier
>extra fresh poop sample FTW
>vet tech brings me back the now clean carrier, 'do you want your towel back?'
>'no. no, honey i dont.'
>i threw in the towel. hee hee
>vet comes in - Shine suffers humiliations galore
>shotted up, wormed up, fixed up, find out he's been brawlin'
>warning from vet there's been a tom lurkin' and beatin' on our bro-cat, Shine
>burn with rage, determine to add more dog patrols
>give vet all my money and thanks
>Shine sleeps like a baby the whole way home
>#priceless

The warning from our vet that either Shine has been roaming too far afield and got into someone else's territory - or more likely that there is a new tom on the loose has set us into high alert. Normally we would welcome a wanderer - foundlings and orphans are can come right on in and commence to hunting rats. But not a tom that is looking to fight.

Shine is more of a lover than a fighter and the only other time he's been in a tumble was when he got a bad bite right on his bottom. The vet said he was probably running away. While he is no craven - Shine's hunting record shows that - the fact is that feral toms can carry disease. We also worry about our other barncat, Bobbi, who is very timid. If Shine can't fight off a new tom then there is no way Bobbi could.

Our solution will be to make sure we get Shine locked up in the garage a little earlier and also to send the dogs out early - and late.

I also need to have in my notes that we need to give Shine the next dose of wormer in 30 days - So May 2.

Hopefully Shine will forgive me for dragging him off to the vet. But we are glad we got him fixed up and that he will be back to his full hunting speed. The War on Rats is ratcheting up and we need our full compliment of hunters in tip top shape.

Happy Thursday everyone! Are you taking care of your barncats?


4 comments:

Sunnybrook Farm said...

We are lucky, our vet comes to the house and the cats think they are just getting extra attention. Barn cats can be like grabbing the wrong end of a chain saw, no better left to set there and purr at an idle.

David said...

Hope ol' Shine is on the mend!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

SBF - i wish our vet would come out! but we really love these guys.. the vets AND the cats. ;-)

he's totally perked up, Dave. thanks!

Amanda said...

"Dang, son, wut you been eating?"

Ha! This whole post crack me up!

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