Butch & Sundance: The Scallywag Cats

By Aunt Mary

Along their journey, they met critters who both helped them and those who would eat them! There were dogs, always barking in the distance, and coyotes who gave chase and almost caught them. They met feral cats who were wary of any new cats in their territory. Very quickly they learned to spend their daytime sleeps in the safety of Shelterbelt trees of the Midwestern prairie. Do they have enough energy for one more close escape? Will friends help them one more time? Will their adventure end in disaster? Will they ever find their Farm?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667842806

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Butch & Sundance

The Scallywag Cats

© 2022, M. F. Christensen. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Although this story is based on the antics of several cats, it is fictional. Any resemblance to persons who love cats is unintentional!

ISBN: 978-1-66783-5-402

Dedicated to my brother,

Donald J. Berger II ‘Joe’

He didn’t get to read the story

but Butch and Sundance loved him.

Contents

Chapter One ~ Behind Bars

Chapter Two ~ The Ride to the City

Chapter Three ~ A New Home

Chapter Four ~ Duke and Delmar

Chapter Five ~ Thanksgiving Pies

Chapter Six ~ Snow Day!

Chapter Seven ~ Christmas with Cats

Chapter Eight ~ Spring

Chapter Nine ~ A Decision

Chapter Ten ~ On to the Farm

Chapter Eleven ~ The Edge of the City

Chapter Twelve ~ Into the Country

Chapter Thirteen ~ Coyotes

Chapter Fourteen ~ Feral Cats

Chapter Fifteen ~ The Reward

Chapter Sixteen ~ The Highway and Train Tracks

Chapter Seventeen ~ After the Rain

Chapter Eighteen ~ The Farm

Chapter Nineteen ~ Who are these Cats?

Chapter Twenty ~ Home at Last

Chapter Twenty-One ~ Under the Trees

With Thanks

About the Author

Chapter One ~

Behind Bars

Butch and Sundance were in Jail! They had never been in jail before now, not even detention! They also did not have their names. But let’s use their names anyway so we know what’s happening.

What did we do, Butch? mewed Sundance, looking anxious with his little kitten face pressed against the wire mesh of the kitty cat Jail House. We haven’t pushed over any flowerpots lately. I ate my dinner and didn’t try to steal anybody else’s!

I don’t know, Butch answered lifting his eyebrow whiskers into a scowl. His voice squeaked just a little, and Sundance knew he only did that when he was worried. Just give me a minute, and maybe I can figure it out. Come on, help me! Both kittens raked at the wire bars with their kitten claws, nosing against any crack or crevice that might grant their freedom.

Earlier the kittens had been awoken from a delicious, long nap. The children who lived on the Farm picked them up, petted them and scratched under their chins for a long time. Both cats purred and purred. There were some other kids there too. Then they got special treats. But what was this?! Oh, my goodness! They were then stuffed into the Jail. It was awful! It did not even smell anything like the Farm. It smelled like old moldy copper pipes and chipped paint. They did not like the Jail, and they did not know that they would soon leave the Farm and learn about the City. And they did not know this was the day they would become Butch and Sundance.

Butch was a handsome orange tabby cat, meaning he had brown and white stripes in his orange fur. Even though orange tabbies are common, he was easy to recognize because all his white markings were a bit loopy. Each foot had a different length of white. It was like he had dipped each toe into a bucket of paint and was not quite sure what would happen. Even the rings on his tail did not quite match and really were not rings at all. They were more like half circles. Both he and Sundance had bibs and tummies as white as school glue. They both had pink noses and the fur on Butch’s face looked like he just got caught nosing through a powdered sugar bag. Their eyes were shimmering yellow green with long ovals for pupils, like all cats. In bright light the ovals looked like narrow slits.

Although his eyes were the same color as Butch’s, Sundance looked totally different. He was a stunning fellow with black and white tuxedo markings that were mirror-like, perfectly symmetrical. Strangely for a black cat, all his whiskers were pure white. Like most black cats, his fur felt like the down on a baby bird, so soft and smooth. His white socks were so unlike Butch’s off-center stripes and boots. Maybe those tuxedo markings said he was wearing formal clothes and was ready to go to the prom, but those white socks said ‘Oh, no. I’m really a casual guy!’

Kittens born on a farm might not get names until someone came to adopt them. The children on this farm—Ben, Caleb, and Jennifer—liked these kittens so much that they did name them. Butch was Big Mac, Sundance was Buster, there was also Edger and Furbee, Elwood and Jake, Thunder and Lightning and their only sister, the calico cat, Peaches.

It was 1981 when these nine tiny fur balls were born on this farm in the Midwest. There were not a lot of home computers yet and hardly anyone had one, much less one with the internet. Inventors were still working on them, sometimes just in their garages. The only telephone was a big black box hanging on the kitchen wall, with a long-coiled wire on the earpiece that you also talked into. Kids who lived on a farm spent a lot of time outside, sometimes playing, or else doing chores. So, a new litter of kittens was quite a happy event. These kittens made everybody laugh! They would stagger around, flipping their tails side to side, propped against the ground so they could stand upright. All the while, they’d gather their tiny legs into leaps and bounds to fiercely attack each other and even their mother.

Their mom was named Frisky; she had shown up at the farm looking awfully hungry and stayed when the children were kind and fed her. Imagine how delighted the kids were when Frisky presented them with nine mewing kittens, as cute as Muppets! She had kept them hidden in one of the out-buildings until they started to spill out and explore. Frisky looked like such a proud mama when the parade of fluffy kittens came into the farmyard to be introduced to Ben, Caleb and Jennifer’s family.

Butch was still trying to figure out why they got put into Jail. He was poking his nose into every corner, snuffling and sniffing for some clue or maybe some easy way out. He stopped and wondered. You know our brothers, Thunder and Lightning, disappeared last week and haven’t come home, remember? He wished he had not said anything out loud as Sundance began to yowl pitifully.

Oh, no, we won’t ever see Mom again! Or our brothers, or the three kids, or even our silly sister, Peaches! They’re all such fun!

Take it easy, Sundance. There must be a way out of this. Out came his kitten claws, short but razor sharp, and he began working on the prison bars again. Back and forth he clawed, trying to get an opening so they could escape. Help me, Sundance!

Together they tried again at each corner of the jail walls, the ceiling, and the floor yet again. There were no weak spots, no loose corner they could claw or bite through to make an opening. The metal grate was way too much for even these two very determined kittens.

The Jail House rocked!! And then it rolled! Both the kittens lost their footing but only for an instant. (Kittens have amazing balance, after all.) Someone was carrying the Jail and very soon it was put into a vehicle where some kids watched them closely, laughing and pointing at them. Being laughed at did not make them feel any better.

The people in the car looked a little like their Farm children. They were shorter, busier, and happier than a tall person.

Sundance, weren’t these the kids that came to the barn?

I don’t know! You really think I can remember anything at a time like this?

OK, OK, it just seemed like they could be.

Butch was right. In fact, it was Jimmy and Sara who had been promised new pets when school let out for the summer. Jimmy was the smooth talker, as the older brother, but Sara had done her part begging and begging the parents for pets of their own. Their mom had a friend at work whose Mama cat had a large litter and the kittens were old enough to go to new homes. When they arrived at the Farm, the kids there took Jimmy and Sara to the barn where the kittens and their mom had chosen to live. There were seven kittens to look at because two had already been adopted away.

Jimmy and Sara had never been on a farm before today, but their Dad told them to wear jeans just in case they got to do anything fun. He said they might have to chase the cows or walk beans, whatever that was. So, they were pretty happy to have jeans on when they climbed up into the hay loft to see the kittens. Hay looks kind of soft and squishy, but it is really scratchy and pokey. The kittens knew a game would start whenever kids showed up and they tried to hide, preparing for the attack. Ben and Caleb knew what would happen, and right away each caught a kitten. Jennifer also reached for one while the others peeked out from behind a bale of hay. Pretty soon all the little guys were jumping at each other, crawling under bales of hay and everyone was laughing. Jimmy had to hold his sides and Sara had tears squeezing out the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard.

Jimmy stopped for a minute to ask a question of their new friends. Our Dad said we might have to walk beans. What does that mean?

Ben answered. Well, it’s not really a lot of fun. You need a humongous knife, and then you cut down the weeds in the soybean rows. It takes a long time. If it’s real hot, when we get done, we get to run through the irrigation spray. That part’s pretty fun.

Wow, I thought it would be something easier! There’s a lot of work on a farm, isn’t there?

Could we hold the kittens now? Sara had tried to be polite, but she was itching to play with the little cats. She did not care much about walking beans or running or jumping beans, for that matter. She wanted to start figuring out which kittens they would take home.

Jennifer offered the first orange kitten to Sara. This one is a little imp. He likes to hide and jump on the others when they aren’t looking.

Sara examined, petted, and tickled the kitten under its chin and then waited to exchange with her brother the kitten he had. Meanwhile, Caleb had given Peaches, the calico kitten, to Jimmy.

Caleb said. "Peaches is the only girl in the bunch. Calico cats are almost always girls. We would like to keep her, but if you really want her, that’s OK, too. By this time Peaches had already struggled out of Jimmy’s hands and was halfway across the hay loft!

Wow, said Jimmy. She doesn’t like to be held! Looks like she wants to stay here on the farm with y’all.

All the kids laughed when Caleb said that Peaches could be a little spooky sometimes.

More exchanges were made until all the rest of the kittens were held, tickled, and petted. As each kitten was put into the hands of either Jimmy or Sara, the farm kids offered tidbits about each. They shared the names they had given each fuzzy critter, what they liked about each one, and how they stood out from their littermates. Each one squiggled and squirmed, wanting to rejoin his pals at play.

Ben said. It’s OK if you name them something else. Mostly, the kittens just came running to ‘Here, kitty, kitty.’

Jennifer piped up to say, These last two are pretty special. They are always doing something different and making us laugh. Big Mac fell asleep in the car yesterday and he really isn’t afraid of anything!

Caleb offered, And Buster is always with Big Mac. The two of them are quite the good hunters, for kittens. The farm kids even bragged how the two kittens could always catch the biggest grasshoppers.

Jimmy said. I like the orange tabby cat that isn’t afraid of anything. Look how he just stares at me square in the eyes, and he doesn’t squirm like the others.

Sara was glad the orange tabby’s pal was the pretty, soft black and white cat called Buster. She said, I think this little guy has the softest fur of all these kittens. I just want to hug him up and pet him all day long!

Ben asked. So, you’re sure that these are the two you want to take home?

Jimmy and Sara looked at each