Ms. Annie’s Farm

Crunch, crunch, the sound of the old leaves under my feet and the occasional SNAP! of a twig that makes my heart jump. My job is to check out what people do not want to check out so here I am out on a desolate farm that has by far seen better days, the dried-out corn fields that could not even be made into a corn maze with it’s dried out corn because of the smell of rot and mold. I walk through what used to be a pasture and sink into the muck, there is no cows, or goats left.

Poor old Ms. Annie has seemingly lost her marbles years ago and her farm has gone to waste. There’s not much left of what was once a majestic farm with beautiful strong horses with shiny coats that glistened in the sunlight.

Her farm was the farm to be seen with all it’s beautiful animals and well-kept grounds. Then the harassment started happening big business wanted her land, they wanted her crops, they wanted her beautiful animals. They called, they came to the door, they would send citations for things like “nail loose in fence” from the town. Ms. Annie would then have to spend all day looking for the loose nail for pay a fine. The harassment was never ending.

As her animals aged, she let them pass on having given them a good life, but never replacing them. She stopped planting the fields, but she refused to give up her land on pure principal because of the harassment.

Annie still had her beautiful barn. She would go into the barn and imagine the days of her farm full of life. It filled her with happiness, sadness, anger and lately pure fear. There was something in there that was scaring her.

This creature would make the most horrible noises and knock things over, it would create havoc in the barn making all kinds of noise and destroying things.

Ms. Annie spotted it once. It was huge, its green eyes stared right at her, its eyes pierced right through her soul and scared her down to her very being. What was Ms. Annie to do?

That is where I come in. I’m here to remove the creature. Why? I do not know, I am the local do everything, anything that needs to be done, that’s me. AKA the sheriff. Who knew the sheriff in a small town also had to take calls for creatures haunting barns? But they do.

Here I am walking across the field in the muck, ready to walk into the beautiful barn to meet this terrifying huge creature with green eyes that terrified Ms. Annie down to her very being. It wanted to suck out her soul (or did it, or am I just making that part up in my head because I am nervous as well).

What kind of creatures can be out here in the middle of Ohio, Big foot? If it is Big Foot I’m going to ask him if he wants a beer and maybe I can help him find a pair of slippers, so people stop harassing him. I bet Big Foot is really cool. Maybe Ms. Annie will allow Big Foot to use her shower if I promise to clean out the drain. Seriously, what else can there be in Ohio.

Oh, wait there was that crazy guy who collected exotic animals, got mad and released them and many of them ended up on the freeway. I wonder did they collect all those animals? Maybe there was a baby tiger and it had green eyes, and this is a baby tiger? I love tigers. I would totally pet the tiger; I would be one of those people that the last thing I said Is “PSPSPS” calling a tiger.

Bear? If it is a baby bear okay, a mama bear, no thanks. I am not going to push it off the wall like that little girl in Facebook to protect my dogs, because my dogs are at home watching tv, where I should be.

Fine I’ll just look in the barn already.

Slowly I open the door and shine my light in. The barn is surprisingly well kept for having not held animals in years. I step in and shine my light around, nothing seems out of place, I am not sure what Ms. Annie is talking about there’s no creature in here causing havoc in the barn. I walk around, shining by flashlight seeing and hearing nothing. I lean against a stable and check my messages and wait for about 15 minutes. Nothing. Sorry Ms. Annie, I’m going to have to chalk it up to those outsiders causing you to lose your marbles.

As I close the door I hear, mrrrmrrrr. Huh? Mmmrrrrmmmrrrr. That is odd. So, I step back in and shine my light around. Sure enough I see the green eyes. I continue to shine the light on the green eyes. Yep Ms. Annie is right, they sure want to steal your soul. Then I see something squirm right below those soul stealing eyes. It’s a mouse.

I walk out and go towards the house. “Ms. Annie your creature is a cat catching mice in your barn”.

“A CAT!?” exclaimed Ms. Annie in shock. How could I not recognize a cat? I think you must be mistaken. So, we both go back out to the barn and sure enough the cat is sitting in the middle of the barn with her catch for the even lined up. Ms. Annie was shocked she had mice and a cat! Her farm once again had animals! She ran over and scooped up the cat who was in total shock of having been scooped up in mid hunting mode, hugged her and welcomed her to her farm. The cat was a little taken aback and jumped down but did not run away and just stared at Ms. Annie. The two seemed okay and I had two dogs waiting at home on the couch in front of the tv, so I headed back home.

Ms. Annie and Mittens got along very well enjoying their life on the farm doing all kinds of things that a farmer and a farmer’s cat would do.