Cat Food

Over the past ten years, I've only seen the barn cats trap themselves in the back feed stall three times. The third, yesterday morning.

I opened the stall door and pulled the grain cart out of my way. The back half is blocked by a screen door, which guarded the bags of other feed. Aside from the dirty cobwebs and dead flies, the little calico-grey cat was clinging to the screen for her life. Or so she thought.

The cat food is kept back there, and the five barn cats seem to think they should be fed three times a day, and hunt as a hobby. So they pathetically wind their bodies around our legs whenever we open that door, regardless if we're aiming for horse or feline food.

I assumed Love, the calico, wasn't trapped very long because she wasn't screeching like the kitten I discovered in the same predicament years ago. Pappy, our 70-year-old morning shift worker, probably locked her in without realizing she was there. At least I found her a short while later, and curiosity didn't kill the cat this year.