My parents had 2 cats they got when they were older. They were brothers from the same litter. We named them Ceaser and Gizmo and they literally cleaned out the neighborhood of all vermin smaller than well let's just say even raccoons hated the area these 2 patrolled. I mean it was literally daily we saw them catching squirrels rabbits untold mice rats birds with no effort. Then they got bored and went after the aggressive dogs in the neighborhood. My parents had trouble with a neighbor letting their pit bulls running loose. They decided to finally keep them properly penned up after 2 rounds with Ceaser and his brother were done. Best part was when the local ACO that's our animal control officer told the pit bull owners that their dog was the aggressive party trying to attack the cats in my parents yard.

This however wasn't their biggest run in with animal control. A couple years later my parents were visiting my brother in New Mexico and I was watching the house. Someone broke into the house and these 2 brothers were like not today on our watch. They literally had this guy pinned in a corner and he called himself into the police to get his butt saved. Problem was that the cats weren't interested in letting him leave without extra punishment from them. When the police showed up they sent in a police dog first. The brothers neutered the freaking police dog and then went after this guy. I arrived shortly afterward to see if I could get them outta the way. They jumped in my arms started purring and looked at me going do we get a treat please. That one cost my mom's insurance company a few grand for the injury to the police dog. The events prior were from 2003-11

These 2 cats came to live with me in 2011 when my mom was forced into an assisted living apartment due to failing health. I kept them for another 2 years then due to them being super aggressive with the neighbor cats we rehomed them with a farmer whose request was for cats that would clean up his farm from rats and other vermin.

These brothers thought they'd died and went to heaven again. All the vermin they wanted to kill all the food they wanted to eat a warm indoor bed if they wanted and kids that loved to play with them. They died doing what they loved but I was told how. The farmer said his farm had been losing poultry all of a sudden. He had seen massive raccoon tracks around the carnage. Those 15 year old brothers saddled up and took out a 50 pound boar coon in their last battle ever. He thinks Ceaser died first as he was found further away from the final battle site. But Gizmo literally got his revenge and paid with his life also. But afterwards no more losses in his poultry.

What a beautiful story !!! Now I have one for you:

Sylvester was the name of the kitty I found guarding my locomotive, and KATY was his lifelong companion.

Sylvester would get in bed with me, then drag one claw across my cheek over and over until I woke up. NINE TIMES OUT OF TEN, about the time I was threatening to have him made into a pair of slippers, THE PHONE WOULD RING. Never figured out how in Hell he knew.

One day I was snoozing, when a snow squall blew in at just the right angle to pack snow up inside the case of my window mount AC/heater, stopping the fan. Sylvester started in on me with the one claw treatment, and when I woke up, Katy was on her hind legs, meowing like crazy and pawing the fan motor housing. Sure as Hell, they caught it fast enough for me to shut off power and clear out the snow before there was any damage !!! If I'd been awake, yea I would have caught it, but I know lots of people that are so thoroughly dumb that they'd just sit there until the smoke alarm sounded.

That was impressive enough, but a year or so later it happened again. This time Katy was on her hind legs screaming and pawing at the smoke detector. Sure as Hell, when I touched the case it was hot. I pushed the test button, and nada. Then I listened and heard the same sound a wire welder makes, only it was very quiet !!! A BAD CIRCUIT BOARD. Now, I'm pretty sure that even if I'd been awake, I would never have noticed until I smelled smoke.

Pretty damn smart kitties I'd say. I like how they both knew what to do, so one woke me up while the other pointed out the trouble. Lots of people aren't bright enough to do that...

I developed epilepsy from a TBI when I turned 25 it put a few monkey wrenches in my life but I adapted. Now about 6 years ago I adopted a chocolate lab and she can detect my seizures before I am going to have them. She warns me by climbing on my lap and refuses to move unless I'm laying down on something that will not allow me to hurt myself. My wife saw her doing this and literally 3 minutes later I has a full blown GTC seizure that lasted 4 minutes. It allowed my doctors to find the focal point causing them and burn it out 2 years later. I've been seizure free now 4 years.

Friends of Mr Dirt, and I suspect many others, will enjoy the beautiful tribute to him on the last track of Revelation Video's Winter 2023 issue of Railroad Video Quarterly, which he credits to the Nevada Northern. ronaldmcelrath@yahoo.com 330 630 9817