My grandparents were farmers, and had the usual complement of barn cats, but my grandma often kept one lovely housecat for herself. One year, she got a new long hair kitten and named him Hervey Kits. He was a real looker: white with orange and grey splotches.

Early summer came, about the time of first hay cutting, and it was time for grandpa to take Hervey out and change him from a Tomcat to a Timcat (by removing his Timbits, you know). But only days before the Big Snip, Hervey disappeared!

My grandma was very distressed, thinking he had been caught out in the fields by the mower or baler. Quite upset. Weeks went by. Then Hervey re-appeared. "That does it," said grandma to grandpa, "Take that cat out & fix him right now so he quits wandering."

Grandpa duly took Hervey out to the woodshed, but to his surprise, Hervey had already been snipped! Now, this was a great mystery. What sort of accident could he have had which removed his bits but left the rest of him unscathed? Farmer experts suggested that a jealous tom in the neighbourhood may have chewed them off ??!! Well, this was an intriguing mystery.

Time passed. My grandma was over visiting one of the neighbouring farms, and her friend was chatting about the latest new. Seems that her husband, too, had just rounded up that spring's young toms for the Big Snip. They always got a batch of anaesthetic from the vet and so on. Oh, and one of the barn cats he snipped had been a real beauty. Lovely cat, she had kept it for several weeks in the house, hoping it might stay. She'd wanted to adopt it herself. Long haired, white, with orange and grey patches....

My grandma managed not to spill her cup of coffee before quickly excusing herself...

Copyright © Krista Clement
April 25, 2000