We thought moving to the country would get us away from some of the kooks in the city - we were wrong. They live EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From dog owners that think their dog is responsible, as opposed to them, for hurting our animals, to now cat thieves....they are everywhere, I'm telling you, we can't seem to get away from strange animal owners.....
So, last week a truck pulls into our driveway and a lady gets out who I don't don't recognize. I immediately opened our door and said hi. She seemed friendly and asked if I had seen an orange and white cat. I said, "You mean, that orange and white cat....that's our's?" Out of the blue, Dixie, our cat, came walking towards us...."Potsy!" she yelled out and ran towards it! I thought to myself, "This isn't happening....." But it was.
Since May, we've been keeping our cats outside because they were starting to pee and spray all over the house. It was awful. It was about that time that Dixie started wandering the neighbourhood and would only show up every few days. At first we thought he was killed by a fox or something, but he always came back. Then this past week, it seemed he wanted to move home, like the prodigal cat. I never let him in, but started feeding him outside again. That was when this neighbour showed up. Turns out Dixie had moved in with them! Being a relatively new-to-the-country person, she applied city rules to a country cat. This is where my mouth dropped to the floor.....she assumed he was some poor stray, instead of a farm cat that roams around like a farm cats. She adopted the poor stray, got him NEUTERED and VACCINATED for $600!!!!!!!! I was dumbfounded.
When she found out he was my daughter's little pet, she was now in quite the position. I rubbed it in a bit and told her the cat, "Potsy" should I say, "Dixie" was given to her after she had had her appenDIX taken out, thus the name....DIXie, get it? Clever. This, however, didn't make her all soft-hearted. She said, "Well, I guess if you contributed a bit financially...." Then later she said, "If you met me halfway......" I still shake my head. She wanted me to pay for HER decision to neuter MY CAT. What was I to do?
I had a split second discussion with myself. This woman had no children, was married, had just built a fully-green, straw-baled, recycled roof house.....in other words, a worshiper of earth and animals. I knew if I forced the situation in our favour, I was going to have the wrath of the humane society on me, not to mention neighbourly stress which was already building with our dog owner friend. So, unbelievably, I said, "Take the cat." What else could I have done? "Oh, are you sure? I feel so bad." No you don't. I needed her to go, so that my child could go in and cry, which is just what she did.
Afterwards, I explained to my daughter, it seemed like I had put my neighbour's feelings ahead of her's, but in the big picture, I said, I was protecting our family. I wanted her to see that. Fortunately for us, our other cat had just had kittens and we had decided providentially, to keep one. I quickly told her, "That is your cat now!" The tears dried up and we agreed to visit Dixie/Potsy.
As for the dog/bull fiasco, we've decided to let it go. We are owed for sure and if the dog somehow makes it on our property again, we may have to call the police and let them deal with it as we are no longer putting ourselves in danger trying to retrieve this nutty dog - three strikes he's out. But in the name of country living, we might just need to have them on our side some day if we ever need approvals from neighbours, etc., so we are going to rise above it...for now. That might change if Monty makes another visit, like I said. So we'll see.
But what a nutty week - so many animal/neighbour issues! Not to mention we were wrestling pigs and horses as well, literally, trying to get the pigs in to be slaughtered and get the horses hooves trimmed....my husband has such sore muscles from his man-handling of these creatures!
At the end of the day, however, we had prayed for wisdom in all these situations and we feel that God answered us. We want to be an example to these people, not that they can walk over us, but that we weren't unreasonable.
If nothing else, it gives us an arsenal of things to write about! So many lessons we are teaching our children, too. Dealing with non-believing neighbours is tricky - they don't have the same worldview at all which makes it super tricky to navigate. My husband also half-enjoyed "taking dominion" over his animals this weekend and "subduing the land", sore muscles and all. I guess it's a man thing.
Once again, who knows what the week will hold, but it will be hard to top this past week. I shake my head......
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