Mitten, The Three Legged Kitten

I was recently thinking that maybe I shouldn't be The Unlikely Farm Girl anymore because I haven't really been doing much farming.  I've sort of shut down, given up and turned my back.  It's been a season of one epic fail after another around here and I'll be honest, I'm beat!  But there's no rest for the weary around here.  Before I could truly settle in complete denial of life around here, the unexpected happened.

Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey.  Whiskey makes my baby feel a little frisky.  Or whatever.  I can't even grow corn.  I was looking forward to having a corn roast but not with the five ears that rotted before I could pick them!

And then there is this glamorous daily chore.  Yep, go fish out the drowned birds from the water trough, dump, sanitize  and refill. Repeat daily, sometimes twice daily.  

You see since we live on a farm, we have a barn.  And with a barn comes cats.  Barn cats.  People, I hated cats.  Why?  Because once I saved a grocery store parking lot abandoned cat and nurtured it back to health.  We had a purrfect relationship until...until one day it peed on my chest!  That was it!  I was done!  And that cat was gone.  But we needed barn cats so I caved and allowed it.  A few barn cats later, a "male" cat had a liter of kittens (I was assured the cat was a male cat.  I was too smart to take my chances with a female cat because female cats have more cats and I hated cats).  Long story short that feMALE cat and two of her precious kittens fell prey to a coyote leaving the last two kittens to me.  Me, the cat hater.  What was I going to do?  Let them starve to death and take that to my grave?No!  I put my hatred aside and bottle fed the two little orphans.  As cute as their little suckling was it was like having twins all over again.  Middle of the night feedings, baths, being pooped on, peed on and endless laundry became my new normal.  But my heart started to soften and I began to fall in love with the little fur balls.  Before I knew it, I was taking more pictures of them than I was of my own kids!

That Face!  Those ears! That nose!  

I don't even know what to caption this. 

Seriously. I can't stop.

Like, I have a problem.

I couldn't do a family photoshoot without including the kitties!  Photo Credit: Brittany Stover Photography

And you're welcome for this one.  Big Dog has earned another nickname, "Cat Man".

But the kittytale story wouldn't last long.  I'll cut to the chase here.  While we were out of town (If you live on a farm you cannot leave town and nothing bad happen.  It's an unwritten rule) Mittens fell from a tree, got stuck between some lower branches, and broke his leg!  Our farm guardian took Mittens to the animal ER and told us that Mittens needed to be put down or have a ridonculously expensive surgery OR have the leg amputated.  I'm pretty sure it was just a few weeks prior that I swore off spending anymore money on an injured animal.  My saving days were over and funds depleted.  Like, our kids may not go to college because we have spent our life savings on saving injured animals.  Okay, I'm kidding about the whole college thing but I'm not kidding when I say we've given up vacations to pay vet bills.  BUT, this was Mittens.  No matter what, I was saving Mittens.  #amputationovervacation is was.  

OUCH!  That is all. 

Mittens in the slammer awaiting amputation.  I was nearly escorted out by security because I refused to leave him. 

Now, some of you might be thinking I've completely lost my mind.  Well, I have.  But I lost my mind a long, long, long time ago.  I'm just completely insane these days.  However, Mittens is doing great.  Its like he never had a fourth leg to begin with.  I mean, not every cat can have the nickname, "Tri-pod".  And we call him "Mitten" for short.  Every kid my kids bring home are rushed into the house to see the three-legged cat.  My daughter even suggested we parade Mittens around at Farm Girl Fair so everyone can see "Mitten" the three-legged kitten.  

Aaaaand you thought your Monday was bad.

So, there you have it.  It's always something around here.  It's exhausting.  And for the time being, I think I will call myself "The Unlikely Cat Lady".  I love those cats!