Too Many Cats
by Gerry Oliver

It was a warm, sunny day on the farm. Joe was changing the muffler on his truck. He tossed a couple of wrenches under the old half-ton and slid down beside them. Before he could get moved into the right position to see what he was doing the cats came. The orange one crawled onto his chest, blocking his view. He pushed it away. He felt along his side for a wrench but the orange cat had moved over and was sitting on it. He pushed it away again.

There were hard lumps of mud caked on the end of the muffler. He would need to find something in the garage to chip it off. He rolled to the side and nearly squashed a grey cat. He dragged it out from under his arm and pushed it to the side.

On the way to the garage he had to step over the old tabby and on the way back out the door he tripped on a white cat. Joe was getting annoyed. There were just too many cats around this place! Beside the truck, just where he was going to step, was a black and white cat. He lifted his foot to push it away. But wait! He did not have any black and white cats. This was a skunk! Joe's foot was already on the way to push it aside. He couldn't stop his foot but maybe he could keep it from hitting the skunk. He heaved his body up and forward and followed his foot over and beyond the skunk in a strange, flying leap. He didn't stop to look back until he was a dozen leaps beyond the truck. He turned then and saw the skunk running off across the yard. Joe took off his cap and wiped his hand across his forehead. There were already too many cats around here. He definitely didn't need any visitors !