I never planned there'd be so many ...
I'll start with Tux. Tux was living at the ranch when we moved in and hasn't seemed to mind that we live here. He divides his time between the creek, the fields and the barn - we call him our creek cat. Tux is also the father of Emma's four kittens.....at least that is our speculation.
True Tux story - every year the Rio Lobo Ranch hosts an opening season dove hunt. We invite seasoned and experienced hunters, some of whom bring their dogs. So last year one of the bird dogs went out to retrieve a dove and came nose to nose with Tux who was headed for the same dove. The dog came back without the dove and Tux took home dinner.
The one thing unexpected about Tux, at least for me, is his eyes. We'd seen Tux on and off ever since we moved in, never really gotten close to get a good picture until last week. I didn't expect him to have glorious golden eyes .... the contrast between his eyes and his coloring is really quite striking. Almost as if he could look into your eyes and bend your will to his - ha!
Emma and Bubba
We were having a bit of an issue with rodent destruction in and around the barn, so thought the natural remedy would be barn cats. The farm down the road had two kittens that needed a home .... so home came Bubba and Emma. What a pair! Emma is tan with stripes on her front legs and white tippy toe socks. Bubba was a gray tabby. They went everywhere with me. They totally cracked me up and Emmas was devoted to her Bubba. Truly. One night Bubba got himself stuck up in a tree and Emma and I and Kat waited for a good hour and a half while he figured out how to get himself down. He was too high for me to rescue him (with or without a ladder), so we waited - there was no way Emma was leaving Bubba and no way Kat and I were leaving Emma and Bubba out alone after dark. We have at least two pair of owls and with her light coloring, Emma just glows after dark.
Anyway - whether I was out digging yucca, working with the horses at the corral, puttering in the garden ... Bubba was right there with me. Unfortunately, Bubba left the ranch and headed to the Rainbow Bridge in August of 2009. We still miss him. Bubba will always be a part of life at the ranch. He had enough time with Emma's kitts to impart some of his cat sense to them and I am positive, Emma is as outspoken and outgoing as she is in part because she grew up with Bubba by her side.
