Like all homesteads we too have our token cats. When we bought The Martyn House 3 cats came with the farm. One was gone within a week and thus remained Sophie and Sahara ( which are the new names we gave them, as we never knew their names-they were mother and daughter) 
And here in lies the first perplexing thing about FARM cats- they seem to be drifters. They can disappear for weeks at a time no one seems to notice ..nameless creatures procreating everywhere but they do love those meeeeces….
Our Sophie was gentle and a people cat ….Sahara was the wild child you could not catch her and she was very afraid of people.
Then about 3 months ago Sophie never came home. Now we are not the typical have your brew of cats and dogs around and let nature take it course-these guys are our family so we were a bit distressed. The nature of nature is often hard for us to understand the whole food chain thing -hawks diving down and picking up critters to devour…..coyotes traveling in packs and quite coyly surrounding their dinner and boom its all over as they lick their chops….lions and tigers and BEARS oh my!!! Then there is the road kill and of course when your own breed turns on you —CAT fight!!!!
OK ..OK enough of the nature talk so in the absence of Sophie- Sahara became lonely and for the first time we were able to pick her up and actually sit with her:) So we decided she needed company fellow kitties which by the way there is no shortage of.
Last week they arrived a new mama and her kitty we named them Essie and Ruby. Essie decided right off when she saw those two HUGE labs that she would have to defend her new turf. Now mind you this new turf she decided would be the entire porch where Maya and Grace have lived for 3 years. Essie declared war and Grace and Maya were up for the fight! This might be where i tell you what our two labs know about cats. Cats live up on the roof and every once in a while they would jump down onto the porch and the chase is on….. the dogs go lickedy split after the cats who run and jump and finally land in a tree or some higher domain with two dogs looking up barking at them. Finally everyone settles down to the usual routine. What Grace and Maya have never know is what cats are really capable of doing. I guess your getting the picture here??? Right…
well when they dogs turned the corner and saw this kitty and mama the chase was just getting energized when Essies back went up and she squealed and ran but not away from them but straight at them…..WOW was that a sight as she raised her paw to strike Maya quickly turning toward Grace another swat ..SHE RULED!!! We did not see Maya after that for nearly an hour and Grace would not come on the porch! So we had to make some new house rules …We had to give them all ‘the we are family’ talk….Essie paced for a few days when the dogs were near …the dogs cowered when Essie was near ..they would not even look at Ruby.
Soon the porch had to be divided… cats to the left… dogs to the right. Then one day Ms Essie and Ruby decided they liked the dogs BIG bed they had on the porch and they curled up to take a nap. What a sight that was this huge 4 x 6 bed with two curled up kitties taking up a weee bit of space on it…The dogs when they saw this became alarmed….they walked by with a little sniff…a little under their breath cussing and finally they seemed to all agreed to disagree and work on this new sisterhood thing!
So life at The Martyn house continues as always with a bigger family – a few new rules and lots more adventures to look forward to! 
Got any good kitty tales?
All my kitties (six) are rescues, and I’ve learned much from them. There is definitely a pecking order when it comes to cats. Eventually one will be crowned “queen” and then things will be good…unless someone steps out of line.