Sunshine from heaven

What’s so unusual about sunshine from heaven? Not much if you’re thinking about the sunrise type. But the furry-pawed type, now they’re special!

About five years ago, just after we moved to the farm, my brother-in-law from Little Rock came to visit us. He’s the quintessential animal lover if there ever was one. In fact, there is hardly an animal on this farm, including goats, chickens, turkeys, cattle, dogs and cats that he hasn’t been involved in researching, finding, buying and delivering. He really should have been a vet. Anyway, during his first visit here, he was out walking his dog early one morning and came across four 1-week-old kittens that some (the right adjective fails me) left by the roadside.

As soon as he told my wife she was out there to rescue them. For the next several weeks I had to play second fiddle to four would-be farm cats. I don’t mind admitting I wasn’t very happy at the time!

But now, almost five years later, our farm stays virtually rodent free and I don’t have to do a thing to care for the cats other than buy a bag of cat food every other month so my son can feed them. I’m now a believer in farm cats. They were the first furry-pawed sunshine at the farm.

Fast forward to about a year ago and one of the cats succumbed to a car accident and another decided to mysteriously disappear. So, four cats became two. Needless to say, the animal lovers here began to get nervous and last Thursday, my son and his very special friend, Amber, decided to go kitten hunting. To their dismay, no kittens were available within reasonable driving distance to the farm. That created a minor crisis since three of my granddaughters were coming Thursday for an overnight and were expecting a kitten.

Early Friday morning, my wife heard an unusual sound. After awhile she looked out back to no avail. But the noise persisted and now even sounded like a kitten. So she went to the front porch and lo and behold, a 4-week-old yellow/orange kitten was right there begging for food. Well, she came to the right place I’ll tell you!

My wife immediately summoned all the girls to help complete the rescue. Within minutes, “Sunshine Jellybean,” as Reagan quickly named her, was drinking in as much affection as any kitten could imagine (maybe even endure)! First order of business for Amber was to baptize Sunshine in a flea bath to get rid of an estimated 100 of those nasty creatures; no pagan cats for this farm!

For the next 24 hours, I don’t think Sunshine’s paws ever touched the floor because Reagan had her wrapped in a blanket sitting on her lap or in a bed or in a dozen other places she invented to cuddle Miss Sunshine. You can see the pictures at www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the world’s best cat lover (boxer puppies are my thing) but for keeping granddaughters occupied in a healthy way on a hot summer day at the farm, there’s nothing like a new cuddly kitty. If she takes her place among the two other rodent hunters in a few weeks I guess I’ll let her stay. Truth is they may trade me for the kitty; I better watch my tongue!

Thanks for reading All About Seniors. Glad you got to “Meet Sunshine Jellybean.” See you next week.

HHJ News