Down: The Fall

Chapter Five: The Farm

    "Arooarooaroo...arooarooaroo...aro..ugh..auk....."the rooster squaked and squabled as it ran across the barn yard from the man who'd slapped it from its roost ."Stupid rooster, can't ever get the time right when it crows". It was three in the mornin , and the rooster had decided to start crowing right outside his window he still had two more hours of sleep left. Who ever had this idea that rooster only crowed at sunrise was plum stupid. Roosters crowed when they felt like it most just prefered to crow at sunrise. This one preferred to crow at two or three in the mornin every mornin. It also preferred to do it from the same roost every mornin, which was right under his bedroom window.

  The farmer had half a mind to be done with the rooster and put him in a pot on the stove. The rooster was still pretty young , the meat would still be good and tender. All but one thing kept him from doin it. That had been the last of the baby chicks his wife had hatched out in her incubator and raised her self.

  His late wife had loved animals. She'd raised a many of their livestock from babies they'd bought at the flee market. Helpped birth their babies and so own. Their had never been an injured animal she wouldn't take in.

He laughed at his thoughts as a furry reminder rubbed the side of his leg begging for attention. Tiger was up and about at this early hour, probably chasing mice. Tiger was another one of his wife's pets an 18 pound maincoon cat.  There had been a whole litter left at the local veterinarians office door step. There was no local animal shelter but everyone knew Vera took in strays. So he and his wife became the proud owners of five maincoon kittens.

The Cats fit in very quickly . Growing into something the farm desperately needed rat killers. As large as they were they were perfect for keeping the rat population down at the corn silos.

  While his brothers and sisters were content in staying in the small barn near the silos Tiger sought a more luxurious lifestyle . Early own he'd taken up with Vera bringing her his "presents" which consisted of rats and moles . Any other clear headed woman would have thrown a fit but Vera loved it , always sayin "he knows what his mama likes" because he kept the vermin out of her house and her flower beds.

  They'd had the cat for years, so a lot of memories went  with that cat. Shoot! a lot of memories went with all the animals , the house , the whole farm.

  He missed his wife , he thought to himself as he gaised out across the picturesque property with its red barn , out buildings, silos, and quaint old farm house. He could see a fog bank rolling in under the moonlight. He hoped it was gone by the time he got back up, he thought as he turned back towards the house.