I have a barn cat that was brought by her mother to live in my barn last spring. I named her Baby because she was a baby when she came here and I’m creative like that. Since then I’ve worked on taming her so she would be nice when the time came to take her to get spayed. I went overboard on the training and created an attention-seeking monster. She plays with people. She plays with horses. She tries to play with opossums.

I’ve been procrastinating about her spay. I figured that I had to get serious about it when she was gone for a few days two weeks ago. I decided that yesterday was the day. I caught her in the morning and put her in a cardboard carrier. I went out to catch the horses. When I came back in she was sitting next to the still closed carrier. She’s a magic cat. I caught her again and put the carrier in the car. When I came back from brushing my hair she was sitting looking out the back window. I decided she could stay out of the carrier.

She found the office a fine place to hang out. She was in a cage with a towel. Towels are fun to play with. I’ve never seen a cat more relaxed in my life. Dogs were barking and she was stretched out like she was on the best vacation ever.

Surgery went fine but apparently I was right about her whereabouts a few weeks ago. She gets to stay at the clinic for a few days since she can’t stay in the house here. (The resident house cats would punish her severely for getting ideas above her station!)

I’d be all excited about having all my barn cats spayed if Baby hadn’t brought home a new friend from her weekend of debauchery. I can’t be sure of the sex of this friend but I have a working theory that every barn cat is a girl and that they spontaneously reproduce so I’m betting she’s female.