House Cats On The Farm

I have five cats who live inside the farm house. Outdoor cats in general, and especially around here, don't live long. This is Bramble, a skinny and standoffish cat who likes other animals but not people. When I volunteered at the Animal Shelter, a litter of black and white kittens came in with one gray and white. The black and white kittens were friendly and sociable, but the gray and white was not. An employee suggested I adopt the unfriendly kitten because "no one else will ever take him." I did, and he's lived with me ever since, becoming friendlier to me, but not to anyone else:

Bramble's eye recently turned bloody so I took him to the vet. It turned out that he had an infected tooth which caused a blood blister just below one eye. The tooth was removed and he was put on antibiotics. He seems as good as ever now. That's Clover he's cuddled up with in this picture:

 Bugsy, also pictured here cuddled up with Clover, was dumped at my barn as a tiny, flea infested, sickly kitten. The local shelter refused him, so I took him to the vet and got him treated, then neutered - and now he's a fat, lazy house cat:

 Like Bramble, Bugsy likes dogs and cats better than he likes people. Visitors to my house seldom get even a glance at either of them:

 Daisy was an adult cat, dropped off at my barn with Bugsy. She too had fleas and a host of viruses and other infections. One of the viruses (we assumed) began to eat away the cornea on one of her eyes and I treated her for many months, never giving up. Finally she seemed better but had a hole in her cornea, which we repaired with a liquid cornea matrix. Oh, the wonders of modern science:

 You can see how one eye sometimes looks different than the other, though she otherwise seems to be in good health now. In fact, Daisy has become the most loyal, dog-like cat I've ever known and follows me everywhere I go, including the bathroom:

 Rocky is my oldest cat, adopted from a nearby farm litter when my old cat died many years ago. He once got to go outdoors and followed me from barn to barn as I did the chores. But that was when he was young. He's been exclusively an indoor cat for most of his life:

 Rocky and Seamus are good buddies, though I must say that photographing two black animals with a dark green background is a real challenge:

 Georgette came to the Animal Shelter with her one kitten because someone had abandoned the two of them in an Albany apartment. Because she was feeding only one kitten, they gave her an orphaned litter to nurse and I took them all home:

 Georgette raised all the kittens and I got them adopted, but Georgette refused to have anything to do with any people but me. She had decided that I was her person, and that was the end of the matter. These days, she mostly stays in her bed on the kitchen table. She doesn't like Bugsy or Daisy, so when they and Rocky go upstairs with me at night, I close the door to keep them up there and give Georgette free run of the downstairs. Bramble stays with her, but they get along: