“What’s this little furry thing–haven’t seen one before!” . . . .

Tilly and Abe wandered into the yard one day this week, quite to our surprise.  A fence that will contain them in the lower pasture did not get built in the autumn rush to finish the chicken house and forty-odd things, and since Abe knows his way around the acreage, he led them right up to the front gate leading to the house.  Tilly adores Abe and has adopted him as her companion, paying little attention to the neighboring horses that she could visit at the fenceline.  She follows him around most of the time, and seemed quite interested in the unusual creatures that habituate the front yard on this particular occasion.  I expected her to spook at the guinea fowl and geese, but she ignored them.  What really interested her was Mouse, our barn cat who just happened to be headed across the driveway.

“Why won’t this little critter stand still long enough for me to sniff him?” . . . .

Tilly followed Mouse around in a wide circle, not giving up until he crawled through the wire of the fence.  It occurred to us she might not have seen a cat before, since Mouse doesn’t wander to the barnyard and Tilly’s former home did not have barn cats, or any we observed.  It is hard to imagine what Mouse thought of this intrusion, but he was beating a hasty retreat!