It would be important to understand exactly why the grandparents object to another cat. Sometimes what we see as "wacky" is really "wisdom." So talk to them and find out what the thinking is. Feeding expense? Allergies to cats? Worry about excess kittens? Vet bills? Nighttime yowling? What?

I think it's great that you were able to provide a good home to a needy cat and at the same time he will provide a service that you need. How likely are your GP's to actually see the cat? If they frequent the barn I guess it would be best to come clean. If they don't bother coming around then I might not bother telling them. If you do need to break the news to them it can't hurt to butter them up with food first (might sound crazy but it's alway helped me w/dh :)

-Sheila

Oh my goodness, its kitten time around here. We live on 4 1/2 acres and I have stray cats everywhere. My SQ baby Silkies are not very happy with the situation since I free range. I'm always smelling there droppings.... there favorite place is my veg. garden. I love animals, cats included, but there is a limit! I watch the wild birds and its so nice but cats can be quite the handful. Maybe my situation is different since they are wild. I will not get a cat, I would love a little Persian for the home but its not feasible. Just my opinion... and more chicks are coming soon from the bator...

My grandfather couldn't give a crap what happened w/ the animals (or cats anyways... cows are another story). I thought they'd be a bit upset that I got the llama to put in w/ the beefers, but she's grandpa's best friend!
My grandmother is a bit unstable. Her wackiness is definately not "wisdom". If you knew the woman you'd understand. She'll come up w/ some ridiculous reason why she doesn't want another barn cat... "They'll scare the mice off", or something silly like that. She's an arguer, and she'll go to the grave that way. She likes to argue, but if you ask her, it's everyone else that has the problem. She once went off on a woman for walking her dog down their "driveway", which is actually a town road... plowed in the winter, oil and stoned in the summer. She drove all the way to the main road (about a 1/4 mile), just to scream at this woman. And I know the woman. All she could do was ask me what was wrong w/ my grandmother. I told her to just ignore the situation. I could go on for days.
Anyhow, not sure if they'll run across Oliver, but we'll find out. I'm not too worried about it. My view is he's already there and he's staying. And he IS neutered, and all out other barncats are fixed as well, so there is zero worry about more kittens.... we haven't seen kittens in over 10 years.
Erin

Erin, did you just say "we haven't seen kittens in over 10 years" outloud? You better knock on some wood girl, or a pregnant kitty will show up at your place.
If your new cat isn't likely to snack on one of g'ma's favorite chickens (if she even has any), I don't see any reason to let on that he was brought in by you. Heck, he's just a stray that wandered in (wink, wink).

I used to work with this guy, he was about 65 at the time, ten yrs ago, and he said when he was a kid at his grandparents farm they had over 100 "barn cats" they had 2x6's nailed to one whole side of the house and they would all climb up on them at night and sleep. The males kinda kept the population in tact by killing alot of the young kittens. When you get that many cats together they act like lions do in the wild.

Holy crap... 100! The most we've ever seen is probably 15 or 20. We're so off the road that noone dumps cats, and for some reason, we never get strays. That is until last night.... the cute little black and white bobtail cat showed up. He told me his name was Oliver! LOL
Grandma would NEVER have chickens. She doesn't allow anything at there house that might poop on her 20 different lawns. God forbid she run over dog poop w/ her lawn mower. You'd think the world would come to an end! She's quirky all right.
Erin

we've gone thru 5 cats in 2 years, I think the coyotes are eating them. My dad was out working in his yard and a coyote got his cat 10 feet away from him in the bushes, he had to beat the coyote of with his rake, the cat was too chewed up to save so they put it to sleep. My friend had about 40 cats They had racoons under their house that were breeding so they ate alot of the baby kittens, so the population never got above more than about 40.

this might be a stupid question but do they even know how many cats are out there already? If not I would'nt say anything.

They now very well that there are only 3 cats... Buffy, Patches and Reno. I went down today to find Mr. Oliver, but I couldn't find him. I'll check again tomorrow. I hope he didn't run off. I've decided to just play dumb if they find him!

We have two barn cats, one small fixed female named ginger who is a great mouser and even killed a rat, then we have one older male cat (claude) we got at the pound and he is a scaredy cat and we call him the phantom of the barn, he slinks around and go's from shadow to shadow and I dont think he has ever steped out of the barn yet.....neither bother the livestock and as a matter of a fact the ducks/goats and ginger are great friends. THe goats love her and we have found her curled up in their pens with them....go figure, she also used to get into the chicken coop and just lay there and watch the chickens. She never bothered them she just watched them, well one day they must have had enough and they about pecked her to death :)...and she has never gone in the pen again...now she will lay on top of the pens on the chicken wire roof and look down on them....lots of fun to watch.....

I have found barn cats to be very important. They keep any rats in their place - dead!! We still have mice, but no rats.

We are down to about 5 cats and I am hoping to add more cats, but am concerned about introducing new cats to this collection. They are very territorial. (A few of our cats moved away because they didn't like "hanging with the kids".)

Any thoughts on introducing new cats to a current population in the barn? .............SB

We just got a kitten, saw a sign on the side of the road that said "free kitten", last time we got 2 kittens from the same poaple and they had about 15 cats at the time, about a year ago. When we pulled up this time there was about 25 to 30 on their back porch and 5 or 10 more running around in the grass and bushes. The girl said let me get you 1 from inside, it won't be as wild. So no telling how many were inside. They probably got around 50 or so. Yikes, theres probably no mice for a 5 mile radius.

We got 2 "free" kittens from a farm down the road. So far they have cost us about $900cdn for 3 sets of shots, neutering, and antibiotics. This doesn't include the food. I am very careful when I drive that they are not anywhere near the wheels of my car.

We have seen both of them with mice, even though they are only a few months old, so I guess it will turn out to be a good investment. Our last barn cat lived to be 18 yrs old.

Erin, your g'ma sounds like a piece of work. If she hates critter poop (and critters in general), how did your g'pa get her to live on a farm?
Did your Oliver kitty every show back up?

barn cats are ok, but to have tons of cats is gross. I hardly doubt those 100 cats are dewormed. I have one barn that is close to the road, so people think its a great place to dump animals. Recently something was eating our potatoes, so I put a have a heart trap out. I caught a cat. She was so full of worms, no mater how much we dewormed her, she was vomiting worms. she couldnt keep her food down. I had to put her down. she was contaminating my place. I felt bad, but she was suffering.

We have one barn cat now, "jo-jo the hunter". He was dropped off, very wild and would not come near anyone ever. About 6 months later he was hit by a car. my german shepard lead me to him in the barn. She never bother about the cats but she knew this one was injured. She was barking and carring on for me to follow her,just like lassy. jo-jo was hiding deep in the wall. We had to bust a hole to get him out. jo-jo was paralized. I placed him in a dog crate and he couldnt move. As long as he kept eating I wasnt going to give up on him. He had some large wounds and a brain injury. My german shepard licked his wounds and in just a few days they healed right up. After a few months he began to drag himself and befor too long he got better and that was 7 years ago. now he is the best hunting barn cat and he looks both ways when he crosses the street. He is a black n white, semi-long haired, 10 toed hunter.His eye still bleeds a little from the brain injury but him and my dog are best friends.

Marie

Marie, that is a great story. I was convinced I would never own another cat. Eventually they all pee on your stuff! But, your story tells me that a cat is special sometimes and if is special to a dog, it sure is worth keeping!

Well, DH, Grandpa and I were headed out to look at some Red Angus heifers the other day about 25 miles from the farm. I kept bringing the barn cats up in hopes that Grandpa would say there's another cat there.
Sure enough he said "you didn't happen to drop off a cat down at the farm, did you?". Gramps was sitting in the front passenger seat, and DH was driving. Gramps couldn't see my face. I just played it dumb. He said that there's a new black and white bobtailed cat down there that's wilder than wild... can't get near it. He's seen it quite a bit. DH was just about in tears he was holding it all back. I kept playing dumb and felt good that Oliver kitty is still down there and eating the cat food! At least I know he's eating. I've yet to see him, but I'm not down there that much. I will be in a month when it's tree season. I'll try to tame him then! Erin the Cat whisperer!

Erin, I love this story. Cats are funny "people". We had what we called a "woodpile" cat....you know, born in a woodpile and wild as could be. He had blue eyes...beautiful cat, but never did get tame enough to be handled. He would leave every time a stranger came to stay a few days or we made any changes to the place. Sometimes he would stay gone for as much as 2 months and come back all skinny and lank looking. We live far out in the boonies, surrounded by National Forest...so he wasn't just moving to a neighbors house, but then good barn cats shouldn't be tame and too dependent.

Its funny you say that roberta. I actually dont like cats becuz they pee on stuff...lol I think they should live in barns, not houses. But Jo-Jo sort of changed my mind and he is allowed in the house now n then to have a treat, only for a few minutes then I toss him out...lol.

And Erin "the Cat whisperer" thats cute...lol keep us informed....
Marie

well I ended up with another barn cat on saturday...I swear I must have "sucker" tattoed across my forhead. My neighbor came over and said come to the house I want to show you something...so what do I do??? I go...and he brings out this little kitten covered in burrs and he had all of this green goop coming out of his eyes and he was coughing. SO what do I say? yes I will take him??? My neighbors have what I call the intensive care for cats...they have 5 cats all of wich have severe medical problems...like....diabetes/liver problems they even give one cat an IV twice a day....they had just put down their oldest cat who was 19 and didnt want another one. So 60 bucks poorer from going to vet's this morning I have another barn cat. He's about 4 months old he weighs 3.2 pds and is relativly healthy. No feline lukemia or aids and is now on upper respitory meds/eye drops/and the vet wormed him........he's eating and drinking and seems to be feeling much better today/guess a antibiotic plus vitamin shot has him feeling better......kg

Aw Josette your a very nice person :) what a lucky kitty to land a home like yours!

-Sheila

Well, I just posted on Thurs. and now here it is Monday and I think we have a cat. My husband tells me it has been around for awhile, but didn't want to tell me for fear I would feed it.

It doesn't look like it is over a year old and is very wild. I don't want to feed it, but will it make it through the winter? I wouldn't want it to starve, but at the same time, we just don't have the money to have it neutered, etc. when it probably will never be a pet anyway. Do you just ignore them and hope they will go someplace else?

I have had a barn kitty explosion. First 8 years ago no Kitty's, then rescued two on the highway and had them fixed. Then from the woods comes pregnant Kitty. She had five wild kittens. Then so on so forth and we have so many cats that you can't count. Then the lion king thing the males would kill some kittens. Then wild dogs would kill some kittens and some adult cats. I hated the whole thing and realized that this was such as life. I have tamed many Cats and and had them spayed or nutured as I can tame them. I have also been able to place some in good homes.

I pray each day that no more cats need find there way to my house! And God Forbid No more wild Dogs!!

I personally wouldn't mind one or maybe two fixed barn cats, but evidently I need one built like Godzilla. Some critter made off with my last little kitty and she was such a sweet barn cat. Grew up in a barn from what I was told, but she was so friendly.

We've got 8 barn cats, all neutered and vetted. There were 16 when we moved in five years ago. During the first few years, the weaker ones died from chronic illnesses such as pneumonia and liver failure, but the population is stable and healthy now. One is a new arrival, and another new one started hanging around a few months ago, so I guess we actually have about 8.5 barn cats at this point.

Their names are SnoKone, Snoballs, Klaus, Pinto, Merkin, Erasmos, Callie and Jaqui Mackarel. The new one is Tawny Kitaen. SnoKone comes inside the house sometimes, but the others are content to laze around in the barn, on the patio, in baskets, on fence posts and lawn furniture. The barn is full of rats and we found mouse turds in the attic the other day, so I guess we're feeding them too much. They're really sweet, though. There's nothing like starting the day off being followed out to the barn by a parade of meowing cats, where they jump up on next to their food dish and wait impatiently for breakfast and petting.

Well, "Oliver the cat", is now "bobby". I've seen him everyday that I go down to the farm. he's usually in the barn near the food, but quickly runs away when anyone gets w/in 20 feet of him. He's a good barn cat thus far.
On a brigher note, hubby FINALLY agreed I can have a cat b/c it seems we have more mice (or rather small rats) that we can't get rid of. I've been at all out war w/ them for the past week and have reduced their numbers by 3. 2 caught in a rat trap, and one drown b/c it decided to investigate the diving board I set up w/ cheese on the end. My engineering mouse trap skills finally paid off! So, we're headed to the local spca to get a cat... $35 already spayed! Can't beat that w/a stick. Hubby insists on a female. I've had lots of people offer me males, but DH says no way... must be a female. We already have a cat door in the wall headed to the basement, so the litter box can go down there, as DH hates the idea of an animal relieving itself IN the house.