Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I can understand why many people prefer their cats to be inside.

If Zip was not a barn cat, I doubt I would not have gotten him (we have three dogs in the house), but there are many good reasons to keep a cat in the house at night. It’s also one of my businesses and how most people care for their cats.

There are very few reasons, if any, to keep a barn cat in the house.

But I do not understand how anyone who knows anything about cats or other animals would believe that a barn cat yearns to get inside the house at night and hates being out in the snow and the cold. I understand that city people no longer have much contact with animals. Indeed, not barn cats; many seem to have no idea what they are like. I get the most ridiculous e-mails about it.  No farmer has ever questioned Zip’s treatment, and they know animals a lot better than most animal rights police.

Farmers and people like me living on farms understand. They also are okay with other people’s business.

It’s just that simple.

I know by now that many people who call themselves animal rights advocates know little or nothing about domesticated animals and how important work is to them and their survival. And how would they? Domesticated animals, from ponies to carriage horses to elephants, have mainly driven out of sight in cities and perished. That would be a tragedy if that happened to barn cats, among the most remarkable animals I’ve ever seen.

I can’t control what other people do, only what I think is right. I don’t tell other people what to do (which makes me lonely sometimes, especially on social media), but we sure made the right decision about Zip. He has never slept in his heated house for a minute, which he seems to be using as a dead rodent storage site (we’ll clean that out).

It lifts my heart to see him and Zinnia tearing through the snow together. Barn cats are mystical creatures, and they love to dance at night. They seem to care nothing about the weather.

Zip stops every few minutes to give Zinnia a swat or two to keep her in line. Zip is often sticking his head down deep in the snow. Zinnia dives into the snow around him and barks with pleasure. Zip needs to be more impressed. The only thing I know of that he fears is a big truck in the road.

There isn’t a grain of truth in the idea that this is not the life he wants; the idea he is somehow being mistreated is a manufactured anxiety and false accusation with no basis in reality in his case, as Zip demonstrates every day.  He loves being outside in the cold and snow; he does some of his best hunting when snow is on the ground.

We got Zip a heated cat house to make sure he was okay, and he startled us by going inside this morning after a raging storm.  We’ve never seen him going anywhere near the heated cat house at night or any other time, even during the coldest days. I figured it out. He caught something outside and was stashing it in the cat house.  Whatever it was, I don’t think it cared if it was warm; it probably doesn’t care about anything now.

We’ve had 6 to 8 inches of snow overnight, mixed with ice and rain. It’s a cold and dank mess, heavy snow mixed with ice. Zip was romping through the snow when I came out this morning, diving in here and there when he thought a mouse or chipmunk was moving under the snow, looking for food.

I saw that he snatched something and took it into the barn.

He danced, flirted, played chase in the snow some more with Zinnia, followed me as I cleaned off the cars, and did his Zip dance in the snow.

I got another shot at the Winter landscape. Zip came along. He studied and navigated every square inch of the farm. Last night, at 3 a.m., I saw the lights in the front of the barn pop on and off, and I looked in the window. Zip was rolling in the snow and dive-bombing into the tall mounds of snow. He was having a blast. I went back to sleep.

After hunting, exploring, and playing with Zinnia, he took up his new favorite position on a special towel on the porch. Maria brought him a chunk of leftover salmon—her dogs and donkeys are all familiar with the very best in food. When Zip saw me cleaning the car, Maria said he had taken off like a rocket and popped up underneath the vehicle, which I had been shoveling out of the ton of snow on the top.

He managed to rub  himself against my legs, something that surprised me and sent me toppling into the snow.

Big storms make me nervous, but they make Zip happy. It is a great pleasure for me to see any of my animals as contented as Zip is. Most of them are. We have no substitute children or furbabies on the farm.