Comparing our two favorite 20 year olds…

Sometimes there are aspects of our life that never reach this blog. It is not that they are not blog worthy, just that we don’t think to mention them. After all most often we show you pictures of our kids. But one day when I stopped into see Nathan at his office and saw our longtime family member taking a nap and realized I never had taken a picture of him. Never. 

So it is time you all meet Larry.

Larry the lumberyard cat has lived for so long that Nathan, his parents and sister have lost track of Larry’s age. Nathan graduated from high school 16 years ago and Larry was alive and well while Nathan was in high school. So Larry has to be 19 years old…probably going on 20 actually. 

In Larry’s lifetime he has been in his share of alley cat brawls. There are some country and town cats that try to sneak into Larry’s safe haven of the lumberyard. He fights with them and scares them away and even sometimes his keepers haul those mean cats far into the country so they don’t come back to pester our ol’ Larry. 

Larry’s primary mission in his cat life has been to be the protector of the lumberyard, keeping all mice at bay for nearly two decades. Matter of fact when we moved to back to the prairie, I suggested to Nathan we get a cat for our garage so we could have mouse free home like the lumberyard. Nathan said “oh there aren’t mice around here”. Yeah right. We live in a field. I knew better. The truth of it is Nathan is not used to seeing mice. Larry kills them all. Even in his old age, Larry proudly leaves presents on the doorstep for Nathan or Eldon to find in the morning. He prances to show off his successful hunt. Larry is a local community icon. Everyone knows who he is. And I thought you should know too.

And just to compare what Larry might look like if he was a 20 year old adult male instead of a 20 year old male cat….

Here is our favorite 20 year old brother/uncle Joe or as Miss E calls him “Unca Doe”. Or as Hunter calls him “my brother from another mother”. Hunter and Joe are closer in age than Joe and I are as siblings. They have quite a bond.  

Joe gets to go to college, lives in a dorm and has an exciting future ahead of him possibly as a history or physical education teacher. He called me today to thank us for the homemade Valentine we sent him and said “And the best part was the $10!” Cash in all amounts is exciting when you are 20 years old. 

I am sure my brother is thrilled I am comparing him to a cat right now. I can just see him now checking this blog from his laptop in his dorm room. All excited that I said I was posting a picture of him. And now he is reading about a 20 year old cat. We love you Joe.

And instead of the excitement of college life away from his home, we are glad Larry the lumberyard cat is content to stay home, keeping down the prairie mice population and scraggly cats at a distance while he enjoys a lazy naps and an endless supply of cat food.