| The Chip Trio: Barn Kittens! Last Wednesday morning, a fellow farmer posted a picture of 2 adorable kittens she’d lived trapped and asked if any other farmers would be interested in rehoming them. Without much thought, propelled by my election grief, I messaged and said I’d take them. She responded with: Can you pick them up tonight? And oh by the way there’s 3 now! So that night I came home with 3 kittens. Thursday morning we started our work day with 20 minutes of kitten time. As you may know, when a feline is rehomed, it’s good to keep them contained for 1-2 weeks so that they learn the smells of their new place. Since these kittens will all be employed as mousers, they will live outside. So I have needed to contain them, but not in my personal home. My barn office is the perfect spot. My barn office is not the cleanest to begin with, but it is now a disaster. So many boxes and papers for little kittens to play in and around! Things are getting better, however, as the kittens have learned to use the litter box and both the dogs are respecting the cats. I feel like Ace Ventura, farm edition. I’ve constructed an outdoor cat home with a styrofoam cooler and straw that the kittens are learning to use at night. In another week I will move the cat house out of my barn office to just outside the door and let the kittens begin to roam the barn. In another week I’ll let them start going outside. To socialize them, I have been putting the kittens inside my zip-up sweatshirt kangaroo style and bringing them into the house for the girls to handle. These feral kittens have started to purr when pet recently. It’s adorable. Since an old barn cat and current one have chip names (Pringles and Frito), the girls have been tasked with giving the cats chip-themed names. So far we have Tortilla and Potato… my eldest daughter hasn’t decided on her name yet. Taki? Bugle? Barbecue? Ruffles? We’ll keep you posted! There’s just so much CUTENESS, it’s hard to concentrate. Crew lunch now consists of office kitten time. And throughout the day I send cuteness reports over the radios. The latest was that one of the kittens is getting friendly with Maggie. I predict cross-species snuggling by the week’s end! Thank you and enjoy your veggies! | 
