I am a Farm Cat Parent

I have farm cats.  While some people think that all farm cats have ideal lives, the sad truth is that many farm cats are not generally well cared for.  Few farm cats are treated as pets.  Many farm cats are not vaccinated, wormed, or even spayed or neutered.  Few are allowed in the house; but rather forced to make due in a barn, even on cold nights.  A lot of farm cats are not even well fed as some farmers think they will be better mousers if they are hungry.

One of the "left behind" cats

I own several farm cats, and I do love them.

I moved to the farm with my own cat (adopted years earlier), the previous owners left their cats behind.  I had allowed this because I knew that they could not take them and that these cats had very little chance of being adopted (or even being put up for adoption).


 Over time a few other cats "showed up", and decided to make our small farm their home.

Kafka, who showed up as a kitten, at home on the farm

We have had all the cats neutered (oddly it has only been males that have moved in), vaccinated, and they get wormed regularly.  They stay outside mostly all summer; only my original cat shows any interest in being indoors at all in the summer, and even sometimes she tries to stay out at night to catch bats (I prefer to catch her and bring her indoors).

Many farmers treat injuries to their livestock seriously, but sometimes let "nature take its course" with their barn cats.  One of my cats recently had a swelling under his jaw and it was a few hundred dollars to fix him up, but he is indeed a "pet", and a very loved one too.  The pictures are a bit gruesome, you can click here to read what happened.

All in all the cats do have a pretty good life, I think they are happy.

Visit PetFinder, click here

I just want to change the perception that all farm cat parents are bad, indeed some of us do love our cats.

I do want to add though, that if you own a cat and cannot care for it, please do not abandon it on a farm.  Most farmers do not want more cats and many city cats will be chased off by the resident farm cats (or dogs).

If you are looking for a new cat companion, please check PetFinder, or your local shelter.  Adoption really does save lives (so does spaying and neutering).

Please check PetFinder's "I Am A Cat Parent" site, and tweet about your cat using hashtag #IAmACatParent

Adopt a Sheep

When most people think about adoption they only think about cats, or dogs. Maybe they think about exotic animals such as rabbits, but few think about adopting farm animals and livestock.

There are some pet rescues that also offer, or even focus only on, rescuing livestock and farm animals. There are loads of sites for finding farm animals for sale, but few that focus on farm animals, such as sheep, for adoption. One that does have a listing of sheep for adoption is petfinder.com.

My petfinder search showed nearly 30 sheep for adoption, most were rams, or wethers, but there were also lambs, and ewes. All of the adoptable sheep I found where in the USA, but petfinder.com also offers space for animal shelters, and livestock rescue groups, from Canada and Mexico to list their adoptable animals.

I strongly encourage anyone looking for a “Pet” sheep to check out petfinder.com's listing of adoptable sheep.

Below I want to show examples of two of the adoptable sheep from Petfinder.  I hope they get homes soon. 

Visit Hannah's Page on Petfinder here.

Visit Authur's Petfinder page here.

If you are unfamiliar with sheep like Authur, he is a Jacob sheep - noted for their colors and fancy horn growth.