Positively Purrfect Painted Smile, Face 12

Meet one of my cats, Painted Smile.  Painted Smile, named by my husband who loves rodeo, is named after a famous bucking horse from the Kessler Rodeo Stock.

She was once a barn cat, but because she was often harassed by her brothers, mother and other stray cats that frequent our barn, my husband felt sorry for her and invited her to spend time with the family in the house.

She spends nights sleeping at our feet on our bed.  Usually between my legs so I can't ever lay with my legs together, or she often lays on my feet as a blanket.  Lately, she has been cuddling with my son.  This morning he woke up with her laying across his neck like a scarf.

She loves to cuddle and often, while we are watching television, she will hop on our laps, and lay in our arms like a baby.

She has very special paws.  Like her brothers, Painted Smile has too many toes, making her paws look like mittens.   She often places her mittens around our necks like she is hugging us.

Painted Smile is a very gentle cat and can even be trusted on our leather couch.  She enjoys walks and often follows me around the yard when I am photographing.  She is shy and will hide when company comes.

Unfortunately, she is not a very good mouser in the house.  Outside she is great hunter, but inside, forget it!  The other day my son scolded her for not catching the mice that have been invading our closets.  The next morning, we awoke with a mouse dead on the kitchen floor. A few days later, my son scolded her again for not hunting the mouse that was chewing his candy in his bedroom. The next morning, once again, when I went into my son's room to nudge him out of bed, I nearly stepped on a mouse that Painted Smile left in the doorway.  I guess she needs to be reminded that it is okay to catch mice in the house, that they are not pets, and then she will help us out!

She was a gift to us, as her mother was a stray cat on the prowl.  The mother chased away the one barn cat that we actually selected and wanted, and she had a litter of 5.  A few months later, she had another litter... you know how the story goes with barn cats.  Finally, we were able to catch the mother and were able to get her fixed, along with all of her kittens.  Ouch, that was expensive, but necessary.

Our barn is a magnet for all of the area cats, raccoons, skunks, mice, and the occasional snake and bat. At one time there were were up to 20 cats, 15 strays!  Yikes! Luckily, the SPCA was able to find homes for most of the strays.  Others simply disappeared from the barn.  Maybe it is coyotes, owls,highway traffic...who really knows?

Now we are back to the original four, with the mother coming and going, but at least she can't spread the population.  We also have regular cat visitors to the barn.  We can't figure out why the brothers allow other cats in the barn, but chase Painted Smile, their SISTER, away!  Maybe it is because she looks so much like their mother, but she has short hair.  They both have a very unique marking on their back hip that looks like a heart.  Oh, well, now we have a very lovable house/outside cat!  Even though I am allergic to cats, I put up with it.  As I grow older, my allergy is not as bad, just the occasional itch.  No more stuffiness, sneezing, or red swollen, itchy eyes, unless I am under the weather!

All of the cats in the litter are very beautiful, despite their abnormal toes.  They are a hit when we take them to the vet.  The vets always call in the training vets to see the anomaly.

Well, enough about the our positively purrfect Painted Smile... No, I am not a crazy cat lady, well...maybe I am!