7/11/2023: Another addition to the homestead

Adding to the list of work I make for myself, I’ve decided to cave and add yet another animal to the household. With the yard being fenced in for the dogs, the many cats that roam the neighborhood have been excluded turning the yard into chipmunk paradise. While I do love chipmunks, their population density has been high enough that my vegetable gardens and pots are churned up daily from their digging. Additionally I have been finding more evidence of white footed mice in my garage, which poses a contamination risk to my foodstuffs but also to the bug room as the two are adjacent and connected through the foundation. Thus, a feline assistant was necessary.

I have been a vocal opponent of outdoor cats my entire life and abhor cat keeper culture, however given the circumstances and the security of the yard I have inevitably made this judgement call. The new recruit’s name is Baloo and he will be trained extensively on rodents and actively taught to avoid all avian prey (which should be easy to facilitate through use of broody bantam chickens). He was raised as a mouser on a friend’s farm and easily takes the award for nicest cat I have ever experienced in my entire life, which was already an exclusive list of only 5 purrsonalities. I look forward to his contributions to the homestead.

However, what I am not looking forward to is acclimating to him. I have had cat allergies my whole life and they definitely acted up when Baloo was brought home. To throw salt in the wound, I’ve come down with another head cold after the expo last Saturday and was reduced to a useless couch puddle yesterday as I rested up for the busy week. One day the stars will align and I’ll be caught up on everything…

-Kyle