Well, you'd have to call us more ranchers than farmers these days. But we still have more animals than most people, and yes we have a population of barn cats. I refer to them as wild cats and they are distinct from feral cats, which show up now and then at mating season. The wild cats are born on the place, stay close to buildings and are quite content to have humans near as long as you don't try to touch them. We provide food, shelter, and water. (I'd be happy to provide medical care also if I could find a way to manage it.) Also have created a fenced area away from dogs where they can bring their kittens to play and eat. This happens to be right out our large bedroom window so we enjoy quite a show during the birthing season. To answer your question: yes. We value our barn cats. Like every other thing on the farm/ranch, they serve a purpose and must earn their keep. They are distinct from "pets". Just as the donkey's job is to keep calving cattle safe from coyote attacks while they are down birthing, and the livestock guardian dog's job is to keep predators and vermin away from the homestead as well as the livestock, the cat's job is to keep the place snake and rodent free. They are very good at it. It's a kind of 'circle of life' thing where each species helps with the care of others. The chickens are kept for flea and tick control, cats for mice and snake control, dogs protect the cats and chickens from wildlife that would eat them etc. Chickens also keep the ground scratched up so we can see rattlesnakes if they come on the place. Ground cover around the home can be deadly here on the short grass prairie. It works well if you have the right animals and right breed of dogs, particularly. We do everything we are able to do for our wild cats. And many of them live a good long life. I've been here for 29 years and I can still see replicas of our first cats in their many-times great offspring. We do get the inherent problems of inbreeding now and again (dwarfism) but have had no bad disease run rampant in our cats. But I agree with the person who said you can't determine a mindset by an occupation. It's an inherent thing: you either 'steward' your charges or you exploit them. We see ourselves as stewards... though I fully understand that not everyone would agree with this assessment. I know that a couple hundred years from now those of us who made our livelihood providing meat for consumption will be looked upon as we now look upon slaveholders of old. We will be considered the worst of barbarians. *sigh* j

The cat behaviorist might be right. But I did it the other way in our small house. I let the cats meet & then I opened the cat carrier door. I closed the bedroom doors & basement off for a few weeks. I brought up a litter pan that I cleaned to the bathroom. After two weeks, I opened back up the basement & put the pan back in the basement. Someone was not getting his butt into the pan when he peed. We opened the other doors a week later. I put out extra water & food bowls. The cat that was scare & hissed was the new 2 year old girl. It took her 6 weeks to give up & let my 11 years old boy love her. Love her he did. He now licks her on top of her head. She loves that & can't get enough! For us, a cat was better than a kitten. One tip! I made extra time to play with my boy everynight. I sat on the floor & played with him, combed him & gave him treats, vitamins or catnip. New kitty watched us & by the third night she wanted to join us. I sat on the floor for a month. PS, new kitty did not like our carpeted scratching post. She liked one of the laminated cardboard ones to scratch on. That was an easy addition to save the furniture. Her favorite toy is a thin bamboo stick. She chases the tip on the carpeted floor. They did not like playing in a box that I cut a small hole for a paw to come through. I thought for sure the box would be a great play time for both of them.

My cat is trained not to go on the counters. It takes some real patience on your part, though. A real "cat person" loaned me a book called "how to make your cat do what you want" when I got my cat, since I had never had one before. I learned a few critical things from that book: 1. Cats do not respond well to negative reinforcement from you. If you yell or chastise them when they do something, they will do it because it gets your attention, and sometimes out of anger or spite or just to demonstrate that you are NOT the boss of THEM. 2.Positive reinforcement SHOULD come from you so the cat associates you with the positive rather than the negative. 3. Negative reinforcement should NOT be associated with you and should happen both when you are there and when you are not. 4. If you punish a cat every time they do something, they only learn not to do it when you are around. Several methods were suggested, but what worked for me was the marbles. Cats hate loud noises. You put a handful of marbles in cleaned out tin cans and line the counter with them. Leave them there all the time that you are not working at the counter. Space them so the cat can not jump up onto the counter between them without knocking them over. If the cat jumps on the counter he/she will knock over the can of marbles onto the floor which will cause a loud noise as the marbles fall and startle the cat. The scat mats would also work, but you would need to cover the counters with them and that would be rather expensive. I would not want to spray stuff on my counters that is not food worthy, so check out what is in those sprays and how they smell and make sure they will not be absorbed into the stone or damage the resin or discolor the stone. I lived with those cans of marbles for about 6 months, but my cat is now 9 yrs old and never goes on the counters. I confess to having knocked them over more than she did. I found the easiest way to live with them is to just push the cans to the back of the counter while you are working in the kitchen so you are less likely to knock them over yourself, and then just slide them forward again when you are done. When she did jump up on the kitchen table a few times after I stopped using the cans, I would laugh, pick her up off the table and put her on the floor, and tell her "that's not for kitties". If she jumped up again, I laughed, held her up so I was looking at her on "eye level" and said the same thing, then kissed her on the head and placed her back on the floor. If I had to I would have put the cans back rather than yell at her, a good decision as I learned later with my couch. She doesn't go on the table now 9 years later, either. However, I wasn't so smart with the couch and yelled at her and shooed her away from it. To this day, if I am ignoring her and she wants to get my attention, she will go over to the couch and start to run her claws over it! I am not sure if it is out of print now or not, but even if it is, if you can get a used copy off eBay or somewhere, it is worth the price. It is esp useful if you are starting with a kitten, because the learned behaviors will be with that cat (and YOU) for many years. It might take longer for cats that are older and were used to getting up there, but a new kitchen and a new countertop are a great time to alter the behavior. The cat is aware that things have changed and this is new stuff. He/She might as well learn that the new counters just aren't as friendly as the old ones. :) Sue

Thank you Olychick. Maybe I just did not understand the post. This is the paragraph I am talking about "Thank you for the suggestion. Designer showcase homes are not to my taste at all.I looked at the designer showcase house on Hopeton (I am sure you know the one) and while the work was fine I guess, it was completely not period correct and the fact that some of the woodwork was painted appalled me (maybe the designers did not do that I don't know). As I walked through (I was thinking about buying it I did not go to the showcase) I kept thinking why on earth would someone take a beautiful 1920s Tudor and desecrate it with that wallpaper! " I thought he was making reference to a home he did not buy.