After witnessing how deeply divided the nation is over the results of the presidential election, I have made a vow to be a better listener. I will try to listen without judging. I will try to listen without finger pointing. I will try to truly understand the opinions of others and try to find common ground. And I will start with the cats.
Yes, the cats. The mood of the cats on the farm has been as tempestuous as that of the humans. I have tried to not only give voice to their concerns but also to really listen to them and to try to understand where they are coming from. I hope that you will be able to do the same.
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This is Tom. He voted for Donald Trump.
Tom is the oldest, and although the other cats don’t realize it, he was actually born in the farm house and is now two generations removed from the barn. Tom has worked hard all of his life, and he killed more rats and mice on this farm than he could even begin to count. For most of his life, he spent the majority of his time outdoors and only came in the farm house on rare occasions when the temperature was subzero. He understands that the world doesn’t owe him anything, and he has willingly sacrificed his own safety for the good of the farm.
Things seem to have gotten tougher for Tom these last three years. There are new cats in the house now, and although they do go outdoors and hunt (except for Emily whom he thinks is a snowflake), they have not been very welcoming to him. Tom doesn’t like to ask for help, please understand, but last year when he returned from a tour of duty thin and in poor health, he needed to start coming into the farm house at night. The only thanks he got for his sacrifice was a punch in the nose every time he walked past Pasquale. Then this year in the summer, Tom returned from his last tour of duty mortally wounded. Tom doesn’t remember exactly what happened; all he remembers is the pain, the hunger, and the fear. When he finally made it back to the farm house after a couple of weeks, Jane looked at him and said, “Oh, my God!” There was talk of coyotes, and Jane tended to his wounds. He needed to recuperate in the farm house for a couple of weeks after that.
At first things were better in the farm house after Tom came home. Pasquale has actually been kind to him and now shows respect and trust by touching noses; however, they’ll never be the kind of buddies that curl up and sleep together. Secondo, however, has been unbearable since the election and now smacks Tom across the face every chance he gets, calling him a racist xenophobic misogynist. Tom isn’t against undocumented cats or cats of other colors or women cats; he just feels like he and other cats are being left behind in America, and that’s why he voted for Trump.
There was a time when a cat could expect an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Now it seems like he’s working harder than ever and getting less and less in return. More and more younger cats like Pasquale, Secondo, and Emily are expecting a food handout and giving little or nothing in return. It hurts Tom’s pride to ask for help, even something as small as sleeping indoors at night, but as long as there is life in his body, he will continue to hunt and try to earn his keep on the farm. Tom worries about his future: is he going to be able to rely on this younger generation to make sure he’s taken care of when he can no longer pay his way?
Tom loves Jane and he knows that he’s secretly her favorite.
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This is Emily. She is the older cousin to Pasquale and Secondo and born the same year. She voted for Hillary Clinton.
Emily believes that the future of America depended on Hillary being elected, and now she is very concerned that the hard work of previous generations will be undone. Emily sees signs that the country is once again sinking into racism, bigotry, and sexism. Emily is intelligent and educated and is absolutely stunned that Hillary lost the election. She knows in her heart that the real reason that Hillary lost the election was because of the leaked emails, and she refuses to accept that Donald Trump will be her president. Emily approves of the protests that occurred after the election and believes that it’s justified to commit acts of violence and to take extreme actions to raise awareness of the reprehensible behavior of Trump and his supporters. Emily also believes that if everyone were as intelligent as she is, then Trump would have had no chance of being elected.
Emily takes pride in being progressive and tolerant. She is pro-choice and sniffs that no one without a vagina should be able to tell her what to do about an unplanned pregnancy. She believes that there is no scientific evidence that a fetus is a human being, and categorizes all so-called “Christians” or people of conscience who are opposed to abortion as being religious zealots. However, she’s also in favor of gun control and assisted suicide, and she fails to see the irony in this. Emily knows that she is not prejudiced because she proved that when she voted for Obama. She considers the behavior of Pasquale and Buddy to be deplorable, and she feels a sense of moral superiority to them and the other riff raff on the farm that she assumes voted for Trump. But, she asks that you please don’t mistake this for intolerance. Emily feels a sense of solidarity with the less fortunate cats on the farm that she watches through the window. Yes, she’s afraid to go outside, but she’s killed three mice in the farmhouse this month, so she feels she can relate to their lives, and she knows exactly what they need and want.
Emily knows that it wasn’t Obama’s fault that he never put forward an economic plan that would break the cycle of poverty and government dependence; it was the Republicans in Congress that stymied all of his great initiatives. She is opposed to voting laws that require documentation because she feels that this is discriminatory. Of course, if undocumented immigrants were allowed to vote, she’s certain that they would have voted for Hillary because Emily is confident that she knows what is best for everyone and that everyone thinks the way that she does.
Emily loves Jane, and she knows that she’s secretly Jane’s favorite.
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This is Pasquale. He voted for Gary Johnson.
Pasquale feels somewhat removed from all the political bickering that’s been going on amongst the other cats on the farm. He was disgusted with both the Republican and the Democrat candidates for the presidency. This makes him clearly superior to the other cats, and when he sees them, he will swat them.
Pasquale is a Libertarian. He believes in eliminating the income tax and replacing it with a national sales tax. He thinks the government should stay out of a cat’s personal and private matters. He is anti-abortion, but he would not go so far as identifying himself as “pro-life” because he’s uncomfortable with overturning Roe v. Wade. He is in favor of civil unions for same sex couples but was uncomfortable with the SCOTUS decision now called the “Marriage Equality Act”. Pasquale is concerned that the separation of church and state as defined in the First Amendment is under attack and that, among other things, pastors of churches will be forced to perform same-sex marriages.
Even though Pasquale has tried hard not to take sides in the Trump v. Clinton battle, he does feel that Clinton’s supporters are being ridiculous in their assertion that the Electoral College is antiquated, and he scoffs at the idea of throwing it out. If there were no Electoral College, the most populated areas, or roughly 3% of U.S. counties, would determine the national election results. Pasquale is aware that nearly 1 in 20 people in this country live in the New York City metropolitan area, and as a country cat, he wonders if urban dwellers have a clue about the lifestyle, the concerns, and the values of country cats. He read an article about Trump in the Washington Post that claimed that Trump won because people living in rural areas are uneducated, racist, and sexist; frankly, Pasquale was appalled by this level of bigotry against country cats by city dwellers that supposedly are so much smarter and more tolerant than him.
Pasquale is a bully, so Emily incorrectly assumed that he voted for Trump. Pasquale used to beat on Tom, but lately he feels sorry for Tom, and grudgingly admits that he has a lot of respect for him. He would never, of course, allow Tom to sleep on the bed with the humans. They touch noses, but Tom must sleep downstairs.
Pasquale loves Jane, and he knows that he must secretly be her favorite.
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This is Secondo. He voted for Clinton.
Secondo is Pasquale’s brother from the same litter, but everyone knows that they have different fathers. Secondo is still a student and has a reputation for being a free spirit and a party animal. He has been photographed wearing women’s lingerie, 
and it’s also widely known that he once engaged in an intimate relationship with a dog. 
Secondo is registered as an Independent because he doesn’t want to be tied down to the ideology of either political party. He chooses a candidate based on his conscience. Secondo has a “live and let live” approach to life, and he does not believe that there are any moral absolutes. He does, however, believe that there should be online registries for people who abuse animals and that animals should be granted the same legal rights as people, with the exception of unborn babies. Secondo is pro-choice and believes that unborn babies are not people and as such they are not entitled to any legal protections.
Secondo wanted Bernie Sanders to be the next president. He liked his ideas of free college education for all. Secondo also liked his ideas about taxing the rich to give to the poor and believes that the root cause for why so many Americans are struggling economically is that the rich aren’t paying their fair share of taxes. Secondo heard many cats accusing Bernie of being a Socialist; Secondo asks, “Is socialism such a bad thing?” Secondo also supported Bernie’s policy on immigration and his foreign policy.
Secondo couldn’t vote in the primary because he’s registered as an independent. He was at first reluctant to shift his support to Hillary, but now that she has lost the election, he has been sneaking out of the house during the day to participate in anti-Trump protests. He carries a handmade sign that reads, “Not my president!” Emily secretly approves although she considers herself to be more mature and wiser than Secondo. The two of them sleep next to each other on the bed sometimes, but not after some jockeying for dominance as each tries to hold down and bathe the other before settling in with their paws wrapped around each other. Secondo has bad dreams that Donald Trump is deporting him to Italy.
Secondo loves Jane, and he knows that he must secretly be her favorite.
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This is Ralph. He could not vote in the election because he is undocumented.
Ralph is a barn cat, but he is very social and tame. He works hard all day long, catching as many mice and rats as he can. He enjoys the work and is grateful for having the opportunity to work and provide for the farm. In return he enjoys his cat food at night with the other barn cats.
Ralph is deeply religious and knows that it’s only by the grace of God that he has escaped the death of other cats that he has seen all too often in the jaws of the coyote. Ralph is unapologetically pro-life having been raised by a single mother who chose life for him and never complained or regretted her decision. She taught him the values of faith, family, love, and gratitude.
When the temperature is extremely cold, Ralph is scooped up by Jane and carried into the farmhouse. Ralph tries to fit in, but the farmhouse is foreign to a cat that was raised in the barn. He was unfamiliar with their litter box custom and thought it would be rude for him to urinate in the same spot as the others, so he peed in the corner. Then Emily started shrieking something about “sexual harassment”, and the next thing he knew, he was on probation. Now Pasquale and Secondo are bullying him, and Tom does nothing about it.
Ralph and Tom were born the same year and have known each other nearly all their lives. Tom has worked side by side with Ralph and has a lot of respect for him. They wouldn’t call each other friends, but the last thing Tom would like to see happen is for a decent, hard-working cat like Ralph to be deported.
Ralph loves Jane. He likes to daydream that he’s secretly her favorite.
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This is Buddy. She voted for Donald Trump.
Buddy was in the farmhouse for a good year before all these brown tabby cats appeared, and something needs to be done to stop this flood of cats! It used to be just her and a senile old lady cat with plenty of cat food for all. Now there are cats everywhere. She guards the food bowl and kicks ass when she needs to. [Editor’s note: Although Buddy considers herself a house native, she is actually only one generation removed from the barn.]
The other cats gather and speak that barn cat language that Buddy doesn’t understand. When they laugh, she’s certain they’re making fun of her. She agrees with Mr. Trump that we need to build a wall; how is she supposed to know the difference between the good brown tabbies and the ones that are plotting against her? Buddy will smack the crap of any cat that disagrees with her and point out what a nansy pansy schoolgirl they are if their feelings are hurt. These Clinton supporters need to get over it and accept that they lost. Losers!
Buddy doesn’t like Jane, but she thinks that she must be Jane’s favorite.
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Epilogue
I would be remiss if I failed to give an update on some life-changing events that have affected Ralph since I first started to write this piece. Ralph was diagnosed with feline diabetes in December which could have been life-ending for a barn cat. Instead, Ralph has been sponsored by my mother and now possesses a green card. I am giving him his insulin shots twice a day, and he is now living exclusively as an indoor cat at my mother’s house. Ralph has never been happier in his life, and this ending is beyond his wildest dreams. Tom spent several days looking for Ralph and thought he was eaten by a coyote, but now he is relieved to smell Ralph on my clothes. The other cats assume Ralph has been deported.
