Like a walk through the country side living on a small farm is full of daily surprises, sometimes wonderful and amazing, and other times puzzling and sad. I hope you will walk with me as I live out my dream of living on this tiny farm. You will come to know the dogs, cats, Shetland sheep and chickens that make up this farm and what goes into keeping them happy and healthy. Come and join the journey with me.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Butterfly...Revisited

Butterfly, shortly after having the kittens.....

Butterfly Now...

In all the hustle and bustle of getting the kittens all squared away and settled, you might be wondering whatever happened to Butterfly. Butterfly the start of all this uh, mess.

If you are a new reader, and don't know what the 'mess' is, here is the short version. Butterfly showed up at my Mom's, very skinny and very pregnant. I offered to bring her up here to see her through having her kittens and placing them in new homes, because I didn't think I'd get as attached to the kittens as my Mom would--plus it'd be allot of work she didn't need to take on. Well, we know how that worked out. Anyway, Butterfly was probably dumped and was not even a year old herself. She did manage to pop out six very healthy little kittens in a short time and the rest is history. The 'agreement' was that Mom would take Butterfly back and probably one or two of the kittens and have them live in the barn, if we couldn't find homes for them. Yeah right. Butterfly did go back home to Mom's and I did place two of the boys in a loving home together. The rest of the plan derailed and I now I have six house cats.

Butterfly--Before...

Butterfly Now

When the kittens were probably around 10 weeks old or so, Butterfly had had enough, thank you very much. At that time she went to Mom's barn where she spent two weeks in a cage 'drying up' in preparation for her spay. It was a pretty hard time for her, since she was so uncomfortable and it was yet another change in her life. Once she was spayed though, things started looking up.

She now spends the days sharing the big barn with Madison (used-to-be-my-cat)and being a 'barn cat'. This gripes Madison to no end, but hey, things like this keep us young, right (right Madison, you traitor?)? She does allot of hunting in the field between Mom and Dad's place and mine. At night she is penned up to try and keep her safe from varmints and from the road. She seems pretty content, and has not once ventured up here, even when her children still lived out in the garage during the day. I thought she might visit with them, but she seems to have washed her paws of the whole sordid affair.

Before

Now

She is spoiled rotten by my Mom and as you can see from the photos has 'blossomed' quite a bit!

While my Mom loves her dearly, if there were someone who would give her a safe permanent indoor home, we would be very happy about that. It would have to be a good special home, of course. She is a wonderfully sweet cat, and suspect she would be quite a character (judging from her kittens) once she got settled in. We think it's possible she lived indoors at one time.

Blossomed Butterfly

Anyway, thought you might enjoy seeing how Butterfly is doing and knowing the rest of the story of the kitten saga.


Uh, Butterfly? Have you heard the term 'roly-poly'??

8 comments:

T. Powell Coltrin said...

I hadn't seen her lately. I KNEW she would turn into more of a beauty. That's our sweet mom...can't get away from her without being fed.

Butterfly is sooo pretty and so happy to be childless.

Vicki Lane said...

Lobe the after shots -- a happy cat!

AJ-OAKS said...

Yup, look, you are an angel! Hadn't read about Butterfly until just now. Amazing how people can just throw away their pets. And those of us who have barns, well, a definite magnet for 'dumping' grounds! I've lost count how many pregnant cats have been dumped off here. Butterfly looks fantastic! Such a beautiful girl.

Stella Jones said...

Ah ha! she looks very much like my American cat, Millie. Those calico cats certainly have a lot of personality. When we got Millie she would climb over everything and she didn't take no for an answer. However, with a lot of patience, she has turned out a wonderful pet and Larry loves her to bits. We got her from PetsMart originally. She was one of those poor creatures in a cage and we picker HER! It was a great feeling, to be able to give a cat a home. Butterfly looks so happy. Could she not just stay with your Mom?
Blessings, Star

Michelle said...

Blossomed, indeed! She looks absolutely wonderful, and I hope someone volunteers to give her that special forever indoor home.

Angie said...

Tammy,

I do sooooo love kitties! I love how skinny she looked and then how healthy and chubby Butterflies cheeks were later on! Ahhh! You are a blessing to the animals around you.

Angela Case

Tina T-P said...

She is so beautiful - what a healthy happy cat she is. T.

Tammy said...

I was shocked when I saw her after a month or so too! She has really made up for lost time and I think is happy. AJ--isn't that the truth about people dumping their critters out? It can be overwhelming.Star--it sounds like Millie is a blessing to you as much as you are a blessing to her! It's wonderful that you liberated her from her life of confinement. Butterfly can stay at Mom's no question, it's just that there is a nearby road and we fear she will stray out into it. Mom can't have any more inside cats, so Butterfly has to stay outside. We were just hoping for a safer inside home for her. Thanks for the comments everyone.
Tammy