Morris has been a fixture at the farm for several years now, he showed up one day, a wild, young male cat, looking for a home. We had two other cats at the time, our old, old siamese cat and her last daughter, both spayed females that we fed everyday. Morris became more comfortable with us when he realized he was welcome at the food bowl.
As you can tell by this picture, he spent a lot of time there.
Morris could be fiesty, he is telling this curious calf to "Back Off!"
Morris loved attention, this was Ian and Annie bidding him farewell after their visit to the farm.
The only thing he liked better than attention was his food bowl and he especially liked to have people watch him eat.
This has been a familiar sight after Morris discovered the advantage of riding in a warm tractor on a cold winter morning.....
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....he did have an ulterior motive though, this way he could remind Bruce to fill the food bowl before leaving.
Morris welcomed Mollie and Murphy at the farm but other cats were to be banished, not allowed to set foot on the place, that started his downfall.
He was so mean to the Lady Porky that I had to confine her to Leo's shop for her own safety, after all she is older than Morris. When she was not keeping the mouse population down in there, I moved her to the porch of the old house where she is still residing today.
We would welcome a few new cats to keep the rodents in check but Morris fought and ran off everyone, even though he was getting old and not as tough as he used to be. He was constantly limping from bites and scrapes and even had to be treated with antibiotics for a badly infected leg.
This summer he has aged before our eyes, thinned down and his face looked so old so it was no surprise when one day last week I found him dead, right inside the barn. It looked like he just went to sleep.
We buried him by the old house, in the shade of the ferns, as Bruce laid him in the grave he said, "You were a good cat, Morris."
A fitting epitaph.
Oh tears in my eyes......Morris was such a friendly loving cat. I will miss him.
ReplyDeleteNoooooo, Morris!!! We'll miss him so much. Thank you for passing along the news, heartbreaking as it is. - The Californian French Family
ReplyDeleteYes, he will be greatly missed, especially this winter when he rode everyday in the tractor with Bruce. He would turn the air vent so it blew warm air on Morris. He was quite the cat, more like a dog in a cat suit.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about Morris. I remember the day building the bee hive and Morris just could not get enough attention.
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