There was a cow out grazing in our yard yesterday morning.  I awoke to the kids screaming that there was a cow in the yard!  I'm not kidding, it was just walking around, eating the grass.  It had apparently worked it's way through the fence on the land line down by the creek.  I didn't go outside because cows kind of scare me, I'm afraid they will charge.  The kids certainly were not afraid - they bravely chased this cow around the yard, trying to aim him back towards the broken fence.  It was quite a site.  I wish I had had the camera handy!

With no luck getting him back where he belonged, I sent the kids off to see if they could locate the owners of the cows.  The pasture is down behind the house, but I really had no idea who actually owned them.  They came back from the house down the road, stating that no-one was home.  The next  option was to send them to the house on the other side, which is actually on the main road.  I didn't want them walking out there on the main road (55 mph) so I gave them a ride.  We pulled up to a falling apart farmhouse.  The barn and the farming trucks were in much better shape than the actual house, which made me wonder!  It was sort of spooky.  The roosters & chickens were grazing, but not a soul in sight.  There was also a pile of kittens in the yard.  Tons of them.  At least 3 Mommy cats and probablly 20 kittens.  I tried to ignore them, as the kids knocked on the door....  there was no answer, but the kids were more interested in the kitties by now anyway.   I tried to get the kids to ignore them too, but with a 7, 10 & 12 year old, anyone knows this isn't happening!  Especially my daughter, who is all about animals and plans to be a vet when she grows up!  And of course, the first question was.... Can you guess?  My initial response:  No way!  We already have a German Shepherd puppy who can probablly swallow those kitties whole!  The kids settled for holding and playing with the kittens for a few seconds, until I got impatient.  

The owner of the farm finally came walking out from behind the house as we piled back into the car.  He looked and acted very mean at first, until he found out I was there to notify him that his "cattle", as he called them, had gotten out of their pasture. 

On the ride home my daughter was practically in tears because the kittens were in really bad shape.  They were very very thin and at least half had some sort of an eye infection and looked pretty sickly.  Their eyes were caked with gook, reminding me of conjunctivitis.  After listening to them whine about the sick kittens, Samantha and the 10 year old convinced me to let them ride their bikes over to give them some food and they also brought wet face clothes to clean the kitties eyes. 

I was hoping this would be the end of the whole issue.  But....  in the back of my mind I knew better!  And what do you think was then end result of this story? 

Yes - we have two new additions to the family!  My daughter convinced me to let her keep not one, but two.  We took one of the sickly kitties and one healthy one.  Hopefully we will be able to nurse the sickly one back to health!  She already looks better today after some good food, milk, water and cleaning up!

Meet the new members of our family.  Their names are Thunder & Lightening!  Now I just hope I can keep Ruby, our puppy Sheperd, who doesn't look much like a puppy anymore, away from these babies!