Adopting a Barn Cat - Meet Radley - Rural Thursday

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know about the problems we have had with mice getting into our vehicles.  The tally in my minivan for the year is seven.  That's right.  I even took the car into Firestone and asked them to look it over - to see if there was any obvious entrance.  They couldn't find anything.  I've tried reader suggestions (from all your awesome and helpful comments) but they still keep coming back for more.  We've had a seat belt shredded, my headphones ripped in two, and a GPS cord device knawed.  I've vacuumed out the car and wiped it down with disinfectant more times in the past 6 months than I can count. 

And so I thought maybe it was time to adopt a barn cat.  Or twenty.  Okay, we'll start with one.  We went through the Barn Cat Buddies program and if you live in southwestern Virginia I highly recommend you check them out.  Low cost adoption, and the animals are sterilized and have their vaccines.  Diane, who runs their program is so fantastic and she will happily answer any questions you have about placement.  So our whole family headed over to meet a few of the cats last week and we decided on a little timid orange kitty, who had been living in the shelter for almost a year.  A lot of the barn cats aren't necessarily friendly, or tame, but they do need a safe place to live where they can happily work as mousers for your family. 

We brought our little orange kitty home and while she came with the name Radiance, I will probably shorten that to Radley.  After all, she kind of reminds me of the reclusive yet watchful and brave Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird.  Radley has to stay confined for 3 weeks until she realizes that this is her home.  I put her in our bedroom, where it is quiet and she won't be terrorized loved on by the boys.  Each day I speak to her softly, and she will allow me to pet her head, but she won't come out of her cubby hole. 

I brought her out for the first time a week into her stay with us.  She was nervous, and camera shy, but she did purr a little when I scratched her chin.  I just love her golden eyes.

However, I think she was pretty anxious.  Considering that in the 2 minutes I held her on my lap to pet her, she lost 90% of her fur and is now bald.  Okay, not really, but I certainly gained a lot of hair:

Hopefully Radley will warm up to us a bit.  Or at least perk up once she gets to go outdoors, to run around our four shed buildings and hopefully chase mice.  She's a sweet girl.

Today is Rural Thursday, hosted by Nancy at A Rural Journal and myself.  If you have a blog post about the rural life (even if you are not living rurally) come link up with us.  We'd love to read about your hiking adventures, your pigeons and your daffodils, your explorations with a camera.  Just grab the code below the button and add it to your blog post.  Then come back and add your direct link to the post in the linky.  Don't forget to go visiting - we'd love for you to hop to at least 5 other folks who link up, and leave them some comment love!