As many of you know I grew up on a farm in north-central Minnesota. For extra income and leisure my dad farms beef cattle. My parents have around 50 head of cattle (don’t quote me – my numbers may be slightly off).
On the farm, you can encounter beautiful moments, like watching the sunset across the forested horizon, feel and gaze at the wind as it blows patterns across the hay fields, taking walks in the woods and seeing some of the wildlife that inhabit it. The outdoors and farm life are filled with adventure. Also, however, with living on a farm and in rural Minnesota, comes harsh realities. These occur especially in the winter months when the climate reaches sub-zero temperatures.
When I visited my parents over the new year the temperatures reached a low of -32 and with windchill maybe even -40. At this point our animals take shelter. Unfortunately, for the wild feral cats that reside at my parents farm, it’s harder to find shelter. Luckily, they have found refuge in our old dog house. Still though, since they are kittens and are wild, they aren’t the smartest about staying put.
One of the days we were visiting my dad asked me and my husband for help bringing wood inside for the wood stove, and that’s when we heard a little kitten meowing. It sounded like it was in distress. That’s when my dad realized it’s paws were frozen to the top of the cattle water dispenser.
My dad and I knew we had to act fast, because who knew how long it had been out their for. Since that cat was wild, we knew it would be terrified of us trying to help it, but if we didn’t help the kitten, it would die. So I grabbed thick gloves and my dad grabbed a bucket of warm water and I held onto the kitten, so it wouldn’t fight and rip it’s skin/hair/paws, etc and/or fall backwards into the water. I did this as my dad poured water on it’s feet and eventually it worked! The second the cat was free, it knew and jumped out of my hands and ran to it’s mother.
I was really worried that it might try to go back and would end up frozen/stuck again, but while we were there it never went back. It’s been almost a month now and my parents have informed me they haven’t had any issues with any of the other cats getting stuck. 🙂 Yay! Now, if I can convince them to let the cats stay in the heated garage!
Have any cat rescue stories of your own? I’d love to hear them! Write me or send me a link to your story in the comments! Thanks for reading!
Forever Now 