Irene, The Barn Cats' Daughter

We are not cat people. I had a couple cats when in school, one being particularly awesome. We called him 'Killer' because he was a killer. He was more ferocious than any of our dogs. He once killed a turtle. We don't know how he did that, but he did. He taught me a couple valuable life lessons, too. He was stellar, and a tough act to follow.

He has never had a cat, ever. I haven't had a cat in decades. After Bug passed away, April was having issues adjusting to being an only dog. I didn't want a puppy or another dog. We were too busy and in the middle of planning our move to the farm. A puppy or young dog would not be an added feature to the mix.

We moved our horses from their long-time boarding facility to another that was literally right around the corner from our new place and half the price. That barn had barn cats. One of the tabby cats had four kittens. Two were orange tabby, which I do not like, at all. One of them was a tiger with a big orange spot on the head. I didn't like that, either. The last one was a tiger, my favorite flavor of kitty!

I don't know much about cats, he knows nothing. I said we were going to get that tiger kitten, and he was not happy about it. Every time we went to the barn to see our boys, I would go into the feed room, where the kittens were living in a big box, and pick up the tiger kitty. I held her upside down against my chest and cuddled her for a minute or two, then gently placed her back in the box. This went on for weeks, and when she was a little over six weeks old, we brought the kitten home naming her Irene.

We were living at our old house, but going to the new place nearly every single evening. We brought April and the kitten each time. She immediately was accustomed to getting in the cat carrier that our new neighbor had lent us. She loved the old house and the new house.

April fell in love right away. And Irene didn't know that she should be afraid of dogs, because she had a really good mother at the barn that did not let any dog scare her kittens. If Irene was sleeping, no one disturbed her. She also slept through the night.

Irene was great company for April while we worked during the day or on the fencing project at the farm.

Irene was a natural hunter. She is an inside cat, but we do have 'wildlife' in the house. She has killed a dozen or more Eastern Ring-Necked snakes over the past few years. And spiders. And crickets. She's bold. Not afraid of any visiting dogs. She weighs five pounds. Her mother and sister are regular-sized and Irene is tiny compared to the rest of her extended family.

She knows a couple tricks, too, like giving her paw when asked. She's really smart and I believe she thinks she's a dog with amazing super powers, like retractable claws.

Later I found out that her father was actually her brother from a previous litter. Our own 'Game of Thrones' lineage.