The Cat Must DIE!

I know, I know - I've been telling folks for a LONG time that NOTHING is sacred to a cat - especially those in my barn.

Yesterday was the last straw.

This little gufus decided to pick on the wrong thing - one of my farmall tractor parts.



He was pretty brazen about it, too. I hadn't but BARELY turned my back when I heard him and his "play toy".

There I was, minding my own business, cleaning some small F-12 parts, and then getting them primed up, ready to paint. I usually try to run a piece of baling wire through any available bolt or cotter pin hole in the piece, then hang the part from something overhead. Most of the time, this isn't a problem - the parts are small and they don't hang down to "playing range".

This part was different, though. It is the "spark control rod", and happens to be about 32" long. There is no way to hang it out of reach without hooking it really high on something like the track for the old door I used to have - and THAT is almost too high for me to get to.



To tell the truth, I never even THOUGHT there would be a problem. Them furballs had never bothered things before. It just shows to go you, that felines OBVIOUSLY can't be trusted. I just ran the wire through the cotter pin hole - like I always do - then hung the part to dry - WHERE I always do.

Like I said - I get the thing hung, then start to walk away, when I see Mr. Fuzzball playing Rocky Balboa with it. It was just out of his reach, so he would jump up, swing one arm to swat the rod, jump up again and swat it with the other arm, repeat, repeat, repeat.

He was enjoying his little workout until I ruined it all by yelling "HEY!", and grabbing my wet tractor part (by the wire, of course...) and removing it from his vicinity. It took a bit - I carried that thing around almost long enough for it to dry while I was holding it - but I finally found a place to hang it. The wire was JUST long enough so I could stretch enough to hook it over the old door spring.

Lo and behold, about an hour later - right after I finished painting it RED, I look up and see a different cat, about 4 feet away from it, sitting on a board I have stored in the rafters - eyeing the nice, wet, freshly painted part....

Good thing Sugar (the momma cat) just gave birth to 6 new kittens....

I might need some replacements.....