Farm Cat

At one time I lived in a small community called Walton, Oregon. It was for the most part an old time General Store with a Post Office inside. I lived 3 ½ miles up a narrow valley on a dirt road called Nelson Mountain Road, in an old one-room school house I owned. No indoor plumbing and my drinking water came from a faucet in the backyard that fed out of a natural artisan underground spring. The water was fantastic!

Behind my yard ran the Chickahominy Creek. Past that was an old homestead apple orchard. Beyond the orchard and up a steep hillside were miles of coastal mountain range.

One early evening I decided I needed a couple of items from the General Store. I hopped on my old single speed Schwinn bicycle and rode off. Picked up my items, checked my post office box and chatted a few minutes with the storekeeper. It was dusk on the way back but I still had enough light to see once my night vision kicked in. I prided myself on my excellent night vision. Once in the narrow part of the valley I noticed it was getting real dark. There was no moon up yet. I could hear the Coyote’s howling in the hills. It was very peaceful. I knew the winding dirt road like the back of my hand. Except when I looked down I realized I couldn’t see the back of my hands.

Not wanting to ride off the road and spend the night in a patch of skunk cabbage I walked the last mile and a half home.

Ok, where am I going with this and who is Farm Cat?
He was a tabby cat and mostly white with some black splotches. He lived most of his life in and out of the woods at the school house. Farm Cat would stay gone for 2 or 3 days at a time hunting and just being a cat. I fed him on a ledge in the barn. Friends would come to visit who had dogs. If Farm Cat were coming home then, he would sit across the road on a steep hill and yell for me until I hiked up to him. I would have to put him on my shoulder, carry him down the hill and put him up on “his” ledge to eat so dogs couldn’t bother him. He kept the mice out of the house so I had no problem doing this favor for him.

Early one day I decided to pitch my tent at the far end of the orchard to spend the night and watch the deer in the orchard. I waded across the creek and took the deer path to the end of the orchard and put my tent up. My intent was to go back up in the late afternoon and get settled in. Friends dropped by and stayed most of the day. By the time I was headed up to my tent it was dark and the moon had not risen yet. Once up on the trail I actually could not see my hand in front of my face! I decided to turn around and head back down to the house as it was too dark to find my tent when I noticed the faintest white blur at my feet. I realized it was Farm Cat! There was just enough starlight to reflect off his fur. He would walk forward about 3 feet and stop until I caught up. He did this all the way to my tent. This was out of the normal for him. This made me think of the connection between nature and us in a whole new way.