The Saga of the Yellow Cat

Eleanor has taken up bee keeping. As most of you know she is my sister and is 78 years old. She has kept bees for a long time so this isn't a new hobby for her just a renewed interest in an old hobby. She has a couple of hives that she had when she moved from my dad's house to her own house in 1993. She has worked with them off and on ever since then but recently she had a renewed interest.

Most of you have seen chipmunks. They are the cutest little things. Recently when my grandchildren visited here I was treated to the chipmunk movie several times a day over the course of their three weeks here. In the movie they are so cute but get into quiet a lot of trouble. Especially Alvin.

But life is not a movie and chipmunks can be pretty destructive. According to people who know about them, they can dig down along the foundation of a house and cause a lot of damage. So war with the chipmunks has been on Eleanor's agenda for some time now. Now this is a woman that shot a couple of raccoons for eating fruit off of her tree. One might say they were eating of the forbidden fruit. So the chipmunks are acting rather foolishly messing with her. And added to their list of high crimes is the fact that she thinks they are eating her bees.

But a chipmunk is a rather small target plus the neighbors get upset when she starts shooting at animals that cross over into her private domain. So Eleanor decided the best course of action was to get a cat. She told me of her troubles with the chipmunks and her decision to get a cat. She thought she had one lined up but the people never did get around to bringing the cat to her so I decided one day when we were at Cool Shade where a couple of my horses are trained that I would help her get a cat.

Those who have been to Cool Shade will understand why I thought this would be a good place. They have cats everywhere and of course there is always a new litter of kittens to be seen. Usually the cats sit in the loft to watch over their private enterprise. You seldom see them down on the main floor under foot. I mentioned to Franklin that Eleanor wanted a cat. He asked her which one and I told him which ever one he could catch.

So the chase was on. The cats sensing something was up that they wouldn't like scattered all over the loft. Little kittens, half grown kittens and adult cats all took out in every direction. But some of the kittens left the safety of the loft to take their chances behind various trash cans, boxes and even the refrigerator downstairs. We finally decided on one that seemed the most vulnerable and soon Franklin had it by the scuff of the neck but not before it gave him a good scratching for doing the unthinkable.

Since we had not planned on bringing a kitten home that day we still had the problem of finding a container for it. A feed bag was located and after some alterations to the woven plastic bag, the kitten was placed inside and the bag was tied with a piece of baler twine.

So having the little yellow kitten safely in the bag we started for home. On the way we checked on our little passenger from time to time. It was not hard to figure out how it was doing as it frequently moved around in the bag and made a lot of noise. We decided to stop and get some super at Steak and Shake. We checked on the kitten before we went in and after we came out and everything was fine.

We got to Eleanor's house and Bob picked up the bag the kitten was in but it was empty. So now I had a WILD CAT loose in my truck. So we started looking for it. We raised the seats up and sure enough it was hiding under the back seats. Bob, not wanting to suffer a similar fate as Franklin, found a pair of gloves. I was crawling around on the floor in the back to scare the cat over toward Bob. That wasn't particularly easy since I do have a broken arm. Finally he caught it and put it in the box that Eleanor had found. Milk and cat food was already in there to make it comfortable.

A couple of days pasted and she decided the cat needed to be out of the box. The cat of course was already out of the bag. So against what would have been my better judgement she let it out of the box. It promptly disappeared. She didn't see it for several days but she kept putting out food and milk for it that kept disappearing.

She soon discovered she had a mama cat and her kittens cleaning up the food she was putting out. Her kitten appeared at the neighbors several doors down. They somehow caught the frightened little thing once more and took it home to her in a regular cat carrier which she used for several days. So now she has her kitten and a mama cat and her litter living out in her garage. So what are the chances the chipmunks are going to survive? Slim I would say.

So that is how Eleanor saved her house and bees from being eaten by an out of control Chipmunk.

May God bless and keep you in his loving care. And may the chipmunks not destroy your house or interfere with your hobbies. If they do, I know where to find a kitten for you.

Regards

Mary