Mom Cat Returns

In a post last July, linked here, I made note of the disappearance of the cat we call Mom Cat.  She had at least two litters of cats around the hollow before we caught her and the other barn cats and had them neutered by Cat's Cradle in Harrisonburg.  We adopted one of her daughters - the cat I call Sassafrass at home.

Since we figured she had gone of to die, we grieved a little when she disappeared last May, but we reminded ourselves that she is a barn cat after all, and this is going to happen to all of them eventually.

On Saturday evening at Hawksbill Cabin, Tessie and I took our usual walk around the property.  When we got down near Beaver Run, I heard this plaintive meowing from in the woods.  We do have four barn cats around, and they range down into that area so I didn't think anything of it.

A few minutes went by, and the meowing was getting closer, so I went back down to check out if one of the cats was in trouble.  Not quite - but I was quite surprised to see that it was Mom Cat out there.  Her friendly little eventually came out to visit me, and eventually I brought her a little bowl of kibble to welcome her back.

She hung out with Tessie and me on the brick terrace for the rest of the evening, and was still around on Sunday morning when I came out to feed them all.  She always really liked Tessie, often walking shoulder to shoulder with her in the morning - and she was right back at it that morning.