We have chickens in three different pens, divided by little chickens, teen-age chickens, and big, grown up chickens. I sometimes wait in the car listening to the radio while my husband feeds them, plus the goats and cats. But today I was struck with an impulse to go see the "baby" chickens I hadn't seen for awhile. I was astounded at how they'd grown! They are getting all feathered out, with the distinctive colors of the Araucana breed.
Then I thought I'd look in on the oldest chickens, and as I peered through their chicken-wire enclosure inside the barn, I saw something in the corner that definitely wasn't chickens! As my eyes adjusted to the dim area, a shaft of sunlight shone on a wriggling, grey mass in the corner. Kittens! Newborn kittens were huddled together on the hay-strewn floor, guarded over by a recently-delivered mama cat!
My first thought was that the bossy rooster in residence might attack them and kill them! He had almost pulverized a mid-size pullet that Howard had placed in there one day. "Howard! We've got to get them out of there!" I yelled to my husband, who was as surprised as I was at my discovery.
Though Mama Cat was nervously guarding them, I managed to get her out and usher her to the cat food we had put out. Then, keeping an eye out for Rooster, I gathered the squirming little bundle and placed it on straw in a far corner of the barn. Then I picked up their mother and put her with the babies. What's this? She was giving them tentative pokes with her paw, like a cat with a mouse. Not the Mama! She was still at the feeding dish! I retrieved the right cat, and was relieved to see her nuzzling them as they responded by lifting little heads.
It dawned on me what was going on when I saw a little head go into the mother's mouth! She ran with the kitten, pausing once to get a firmer grip, while the kit dangled helplessly from her jaws! Then the unbelievable happened when I saw her scale the wooden lower half of the wall, expertly climb the chicken-wire enclosure to where it ended near the top of the barn, than dive over and land on the floor of her original chosen nursery locale! All the while holding baby!
So there we left her with the rest of her brood, while the hens and roosters warily kept their distance! Like they say, You can't fight Mother Nature!
After watching this panorama of events, I reflected on the marvel of Creation. How God put the right instincts into all the creatures, great and small. The nurturing, protective qualities inborn in them could only come from their Creator. Seeing the cat's climbing feat, I thought of the old song we used to sing in church that goes: "I can run through a troop and leap over a wall...Hallelujah, hallelujah!" It is from a psalm of David thanking God for his protection and power. "For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God I have leaped over a wall," Psalm 18:29.
Two more farm cats look ready to deliver, so we will have plenty of little mousers coming on, and I'm sure, many more antics on the horizon!
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