Sunshine the Escape Artist

♪ Foggy Oak Farm ♪♪ Foggy Oak Farm ♪♪ Come on down to ♪♪ Foggy Oak Farm♪- Hi friends. Welcome to Foggy Oak Fairy Tales. Each week, we'll bring you a new story. Some weeks, we'll share a story based on what's been happening on our real-life Foggy Oak Farm, where we have all sorts of animals and adventures. Other weeks, we'll use our imaginations and create new adventures together. I'm so glad you're here. ♪ This week, we learn about an orange tabby cat named Sunshine, who we adopted when I was growing up on a sheep farm.

The cat found us, but one thing was for certain. Sunshine could always find a way out of anything she wanted. Join us for a story about Sunshine. The farm cat escape artist. Sometimes farm animals have a way of finding their way to you. This was exactly what happened to us in the case of Sunshine, the Golden Tabby Cat. Those of you who have listened to other stories may recall that I grew up on a sheep farm in Appalachian Ohio. When my father frequently took trips to sell sheep or to add sheep to the flock or to understand how other successful farmers ran their farms, I sometimes had the privilege of going with him.

This trip, we were going to add some ewes to our flock. So we loaded up into our Ford F-150 truck that had a topper over the back, allowing us to transport sheep behind us as we drove along and dad set off for that other farm. I was used to the routine when we visited a farm. when we got there, the grownups would talk about sheep, look over the sheep, dad was getting or the dad was selling. And I would have a chance to hang out with the animals, see a new farm, and maybe find baby animals to cuddle.

Such was the case at this farm. As the grownups began their standing around and talking about sheep, I started looking around for animals to socialize with. At that point, a young orange tabby cat with bright orange eyes came walking towards us. I am certain I exclaimed, oh my goodness, what a beautiful cat! And the farm's owners turned towards me and the approaching cat, and said, oh, someone dropped her off here the other day. She's not ours and not much past being a kitten. We actually need to find her a home.

Any chance you're interested? That, of course, was all it took for me. My heart absolutely belonged to this the beautiful Young Cat that had come up and begun winding her way through my legs and generally begging for attention. To me, she looked maybe like an adolescent kitten, not fully grown into an adult cat, but not a young baby either. On a farm, cats are helpful because where there is a barn, and where there are animals and animal food, there are mice, and there are rats, and there are voles, and there are moles, and all kinds of little critters that you would prefer not to have burrowing in your hay, eating your animals' food, and generally causing trouble.

So in this case, it wasn't that hard to convince my dad that we should add another cat to our farm. I happily wandered off with the older kitten in my arms to cut a limb on, and spent some time trying to start thinking about a name, while the farmers rounded up the sheep that we would be taking home, and spent some time visiting about shepherding practices, grass, management, and so forth. And so, once the sheep were loaded and we were ready to go, I took sunshine happily into the back seat of a truck's cab with me, and spent the multi-hour drive back home running through names I had come up with with my dad, and, of course, giving her lots of attention.

At one point during the ride, however, this cat proved to us that she was more than just an adorable older kitten. She was an escape artist. Somehow, she managed to wriggle away from me and hide herself in the deep inner workings of the back seat cab. I had no idea where she had gone, and I wouldn't have known that she was still there at all, except that she occasionally responded to my calls to her with an annoyed "meow!" when we got home, it took quite a while of coaxing her to get her to emerge from wherever she had escaped to.

We should have known then that we were in for an adventure with her, because of her surprising orange eyes and her beautiful yellow and orange striped fur, I gave her the name "sunshine" and she was a little ray of sunshine, playful, sweet, and very adventurous. We had just moved into the farmhouse at what we called "Mockingbird Hill," which was part of our mossy dell farm, and the renovations were still ongoing. One of the items that hadn't yet come off the punch list was "vent covers." I set sunshine up in my bedroom with food, water, and a litter box to acclimate her to the farm, but I realized the lack of vent covers could potentially be a problem.

Probably not, because why would a cat want to go crawling around in the duct system of the house? But just to be safe, I took a large heavy body pillow and pushed it over the main large vent in my room. I mentioned Sunshine was adventurous and an escape artist, right? We got back with her and got her settled in my room on Saturday, and when I woke up Sunday morning, there was no kitten in my room. There was no sign of where she could have gone, but after some time searching for any hint of where she could be, I'm sure you guessed it.

The pillow over the vent was moved just slightly. And as I called to her,"Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, here kitty, sunshine, kitty!" And began walking around the house, I heard a faint plaintive "meow!" coming from inside the wall. Concerned, I would draw her further into the duct system. If I kept going in the house, I went back to my room, moved the pillow aside and called into the vent instead. After many rounds of me calling her, the agreed "meow!" began drawing closer, until at last, the upset kitten emerged.

I was sure to block off the vent better after that. Once sunshine was acclimated to living with us, we let her out to begin exploring farm. She grew a bit, loved sending herself on the warm concrete patio, and sent much of her day exploring the barn to her hearts contend. We noticed she was plumping up, especially in her belly after just a couple of weeks with us. But after a third week, when the weight she was gaining seemed to be going almost entirely to her belly, and it was rounding out well past her sides, we realized that the single young cat we had brought home to the farm had brought more than just herself.

Sunshine had come to us, pregnant. She was young to be pregnant. It hadn't even occurred to us as a possibility when we brought her home, but there it was. Cat pregnancies last about nine weeks, and based on the size of her belly, she was already several weeks in. We began preparations to ensure she had a safe, comfortable, and private place to give birth. Based on my mother's experiences with catletters on her farm growing up, we knew Sunshine was likely to want to go off somewhere on her own and keep the kitten's secret for a while.

However, since she was so young, we wanted to make sure we could keep an eye on her in case something went wrong and she or the kittens needed help. The compromise was to set up a large, rolling chicken pen or chicken tractor that had long, cozy nest boxes built into the bag. As what we thought was her due date, about six weeks from when we really noticed her belly, approached, we moved Sunshine into a large pen. We lined the nest boxes with soft hay and towels, and set about waiting. Sunshine absolutely did not like being cooped up.

She knew how to be let out, so she could explore and hunt mice, but her belly was so big, and she was clearly so close to her due date that we just didn't feel like we could. My brother and I sat in the pen with her to keep her company and gave her lots of pets, food, water, and treats, but we did not give in and let her out. Of course, knowing she was an escape artist, I constantly worried that she'd figure out a way to wriggle out of the pen and I'd never find her again. One morning I came out to check on her before school and I didn't see her anywhere in the pen.

Of course, I immediately worried that she had indeed somehow gotten out. I opened the hatch on a large nest box just to make sure she wasn't back there, and for once. She was there, and not only was she there, she was there with six kittens who were happily nursing. Clearly the one thing we had needed to worry about was whether or not Sunshine would be a good mother. I brought my parents out to help me check on the kittens and on Sunshine, and she allowed us to do so, dosing contentedly while we loved her and her kittens over.

All six of the tiny creatures were healthy and eager to get back to nursing. As soon as they put one down, it would move to Sunshine to nurse, gently kneading her belly to stimulate milk production. Have you heard of cats making biscuits when they push their paws against something? Maybe your belly? It's a sign they feel safe and happy, just like when they were little babies with their mom. Sunshine had three boys, all of whom shared her beautiful orange striped fur and three girls. The girls were all some variation of a tortoise shell tabby, which is basically a calico cat with interspersed stripes.

They were all beautiful and so cute. After a couple of weeks, the kittens had opened their eyes and wanted to be exploring more than the rolling pen allowed. Meanwhile, Sunshine was clearly desperate to be able to get away from them periodically to go hunt, use the bathroom by herself and so on. We moved them all into a large chainlink pen in the barn. At first, we kept the door closed and figured Sunshine could spend a little while with her kittens all together in there and then we'd figure out a way to let her have some time to herself.

Well, we should have known better. Sunshine had figured out how to climb out of that enclosure almost immediately to go and have that alone time she had been so desperate for. So we gave in and put a tall board across the door that Sunshine could jump over to get out, but the kittens could not. The kittens were able to explore in the safe confines of the pen and Sunshine was able to come and go as she pleased. I would often sit out in the pen with them, cuddling them and petting them and talking to them when Sunshine was on one of her breaks.

At three weeks, we started introducing them to solid foods and had about six weeks. We found out that the kittens could now crawl over the board blocking the door themselves. Sunshine started taking them exploring, teaching them, where things were on the farm and we were very lucky that we were able to keep all six kittens as part of our farm. As a result, anytime you would go outside, at least three kittens would run up to follow you wherever you went. We started calling them our shadows. Because they had been socialized with people and other animals from a young age, they were the most affectionate and sweet cats we had ever seen.

The boys grew into large, strong males while the girls all stayed rather petite like their mother. As soon as Sunshine was done being a mom, she went to the vet to get stayed. And all her kittens were stayed and neutered when they were old enough to prevent similar future surprise litters of kittens. But Sunshine and her six babies ensured you never wanted for a company when you were walking down to the pond to go for a swim or playing in the large stacks of square hay bales in the barn. Several years after the kittens when Sunshine was still a young cat but definitely no longer a kitten, she didn't come to breakfast in the morning.

Her six kittens now fully grown and all of our other cats jumped up for breakfast, begging for their usual morning pets as they happily munched down their food, but Sunshine was not there. I wasn't overly worried on the first day, sometimes Sunshine missed a meal or two when she was hunting. But by day three I was getting concerned. I spent longer than usual calling her and eventually I heard an incredibly faint coming from under a low patio table near where I was feeding the other cats. I almost wasn't sure I heard anything.

I called again and bent down to look under the table and there was sunshine. She meowed again, pitifully, and I reached under to pull her out. When I did I saw the reason. She had been attacked by a coyote and she needed vet attention immediately. I took her inside and we quickly put data dean, which is like a disinfectant, onto her wound and we worked to deal with the immediate results of the bite that we could help with at home. I won't go into all of the details, but it was a serious wound. We called the vet and rushed her there.

That vet did miracle work between stitching her up and patching her back together, disinfecting the wound, and giving her the medicine that she needed afterwards to set her to rights like antibiotics. The vet warned us though that it was going to be up to sunshine. She was badly hurt and she needed to want to stay with us. We kept her in a bathroom inside, applying her with wet food and gentle pets and every reassurance. I was deeply worried but I reassured myself that sunshine wanted to live. Otherwise she wouldn't have come back to the farm and wouldn't have called out to me for help.

She did heal, gradually, but the stripes that went all along her spine was always a little crooked from that day forward. Looking back in time, I was grateful she had proven to be such an escape artist throughout her life. It had helped her get away from that coyote so that she could come back to us. After the coyote attack, she liked to say a little close to the house and barn. One of her favorite things to do was come and sleep in my room on a big cozy rug with the sun hit just right. She loved attention more than ever and would happily sprawl out on that favorite rug and let my friend and I lay playing cards on her when we were in the middle of the game.

She was our discard pile and exchanged for some head pets and loving praise of her magnificent. Sunshine was a wonderful mother, a survivor, one of the sweetest cats I have had the pleasure to know they true forever escape artist. Her children and our other cats have all had adventures of their own but those will wait for another week. Thanks for joining us.

Remember, you're part of the story too. What did you think of this story? What did you imagine when you were listening? We'd love to hear your part of the story. If you and your grown-up want, you can share your thoughts or a picture you drew with our foggy oak podcast family. You might find it easiest to share with us on Facebook @foggy oak farm but we have lots of options on our website foggy oak fairytales.com. You can also check out pictures from the farm and learn more about us. Thanks for being part of the story and I hope you'll join us next week.

Sunshine the Escape Artist 🐈 | Farm Stories About Clever Cats

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