The ranch cats
drove my mother near crazy,
sneakin’ around the kitchen door, meowin’ and complainin’–
all four of ’em would try to scoot
in the house
the minute you opened the screen,
and my mom would bash at first one
and then the other with her broom.
“Bill,” she’d tell my dad, “just get rid of those darn cats,
I don’t care how you do it!”

My dad would smile and shake his head and say,
“Betty Jo, those tomcats keep snakes away from the house.”
Then my little sister Judy
would trot over
and pick up two of those ol’ cats at the same time, all limp and lazy,
and lug them over
where she had her playhouse
scratched out in the dirt,
and they’d just lie there, purrin’
while she fixed ’em a tea party.
Girls!
Them cats was all skinny
and beat-up lookin’
’cause of all the fights they got into,
and when they went huntin’ varmints in the brush,
all those brown and grey stripes would just blend right in–
now you see ’em, now you don’t!
and I guess my mom would have never let ’em come in the house
’cept one day we heard all this screechin’ and hissin’
over by Judy’s playhouse,
and when I run over to see
what was goin’ on,
all four cats was runnin’ back and forth
growlin’ and yowlin’, their ears laid back flat on their heads,
’cause a big ol’ rattlesnake had come slidin’ under the fence
like he was invited to Judy’s tea-party!

Them cats had their whole selfs fluffed out to about twiced usual size
and they was takin’ turns jumpin’ at that old snake,
who was so mixed up he didn’t know what to do–
he’d rear up and strike at one cat
and miss,
and another cat’d jump in and claw that ol’ rattler right down his fat side!
I was yellin’ and Judy was boo-hooin’,
when my dad, he come out the house with his shotgun,
and blew the rattlesnake’s head
clean off!

Judy had named them cats
Tom and Billy (after me)
and Stripedy Sam
and Twinkle Little Star,
and cold nights one or two cats ’ud sleep on Judy’s bed.
One of ’em had a kind of star-shaped white spot on his nose,
so I knowed it was Twinkle Little Star
who’d bunk down with me
under the covers in the winter–
’less he was out chasin’ rattlesnakes, o’course.

Author: Sue Littleton
Country: United States
True story: Yes
Rating: 3 paws up
Vote: Vote up Vote down

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