The odds of finding a barn cat in a barn are considerably high. One might even stake a bet on it, if he were so persuaded. To quote the great hair band, Poison, “Just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad, song, e-ve-ry cat has its barn. Yeah, it does.” Although my recall of song lyrics may be a little caddywampus, I will note that most barns have a cat or two, and ours is no different. At our old place, our barn cats came with the building, and they were wild. Without a pair of welding gloves, you were coming out of a cat-processing with some injuries. We never got those cats spayed, and it was actually a good thing. Between the train tracks and the coyotes, the population never grew to more than five, and we didn’t have any mouse problems. When we built our barn at our new place, we imported some kittens. They became wonderful dog toys. It took us a couple of rounds of that to figure out we’d better get full grown cats. The Schulze family was looking to get rid of a few, so we took them up on the offer. We had my veterinarian sister-in-law, Sara, take care of the cats, in order to keep our population in check. We started with three, and although we’re down to around two, those cats have done a great job of keeping the mouse population pushed into the fields and out of the barn and house. The key to making good mousers, I have found, is not overfeeding the cats. We feed them a pretty good maintenance ration, and that keeps them hunting. If they want snacks, they’d better get to work. The program works, because the cats look good, and the mice keep their distance, for the most part. A few instances have arisen, however, when the cats seem to begin eating a lot more cat food. It would start almost unnoticeably. Instead of their food lasting for a few days, they’d be out after a couple. Then, the food would only last for a day and a half. Pretty quick, it had gotten to the point it would barely last a day. The thing about it, though, is that it took quite a while before a difference was really noticed. Then, it was decided that the cats were just running out of mice. However, the truth finally came out when my mom happened to be over and walked into the barn one night. As she walked through the dark stall area, she noticed a pretty large cat. Upon further inspection, she realized it WAS a large cat—a polecat, as a matter of fact. The skunk was munching away on cat food, as he had been for quite some time, apparently. My mom wasn’t real sure what to do, but by the time help arrived, he had figured it out on his own. No one was sprayed, but the showdown could have ended ugly. The thing about it is that people tend to let the same thing happen in their spiritual lives. We listen to a teaching that sounds good, and we like it. Then we listen to some more. Perhaps we buy the book. Then we watch the videos. Pretty quick, we’re so far from the Truth, we can’t even see back there. All we have is a large, stinking cat with a stripe down its back. He’s eating all the cat food, but he’s not thinning the mouse herd at all. False teaching doesn’t come out of left field. Our enemy is a lot more subtle. He’s good at what he does, when it comes to deceiving. Look at what he did with Eve. Many times, he starts with God’s word—right out of the Bible. Then he’ll put a little layer on it that sounds pretty much in line with what the word says. Then he’ll twist it ever so slightly to be acceptable but not altogether Truth. After a few more layers and a little more twisting, he’s got us deceived into believing something the Bible doesn’t even say. He’s slick. He’s a serpent, for crying out loud. We’ve got to keep our eyes on those cats. We’ve got to keep checking on them and their food dish. We’ve got to remember, also, that the Bible doesn’t always tell us what WE want to hear, but it ALWAYS tells us the Truth. If we know it, if we hide it in our hearts, if we study it, we’ll notice the feed is disappearing before there’s a skunk in the barn. “…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4: 2-4.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 06:48:49 +0000
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