Unlikely Friends

*All you non-animal-lovers beware of the following post*
So, I'm pretty much an animal geek, as anyone who has known me for more than say ten seconds knows. I have a hard time turning away a stray anything. (The chickens and goat can attest to this.) Two winters ago I would hear a cat somewhere in the horse shanty every time I went to feed the horses. The cat was super whiny but wouldn't let me get near it, so I left food for it. Little by little the cat came out and eventually even started following me back to the house - at a safe distance. Since he lived in the barn the boys named him Barney (SO clever, I know). He's actually a pretty cute orange & white cat so I tried to change his name to McDreamy but the boys wouldn't have it, so we compromised on Mr. Barney McDreamy.

Now Barney sleeps right outside the back door and is petrified to come in any further than that. He pretty much seems to think he's a dog - or at least one of the gang. He follows Duke and Sadie (Again, yes, I know, our creativity cup on pet names runneth over.) and rubs up against them. When I go out to do the nighttime feedings I feel like I'm being tailed by the second-hand cast of Homeward Bound. I've been trying to get a picture of Barney hanging out with the dogs for the longest time and I finally got a few of him with Duke before they both got up. (I think Sadie was somewhere sleeping off her nighttime binge of slaughtered cow, sick! I can't wait until the city puts the fence back up along the canal.)