New Addition

It’s been ten years since I have had a furry baby in my care.  I went through a period of dog lust that was so bad I visited several shelters looking for the right companion to no avail.  The ones given over to the agencies were either mixed with pit bull or chihuahua or both, were too big, or just didn’t connect with me.

So I had the idea that I wanted a Tuxedo cat so that I could mirror the heroine in my novels, Rachael Culpepper.  She has her Napoleon to keep her company and guard her house.  But again, the shelters let me down.  I found black and white’s but somehow I was alway too late.   Mysteriously, they were always taken before I got there.  I didn’t know that it was such a popular color for cats.  And since the novel isn’t published, it isn’t my doing to make folks want the sleek, intelligent felines.

So I decided to wait and see what fate would bring me as a companion.  We have had many critters visit our house since we moved here, some tame and some wild.  When we pulled up the deck, we found that we were the Possum Graveyard.  There were four skulls and numerous small bones scattered in among the pebbles.  There was even a time when a Mama Possum lived under there.  She was evicted when we were making repairs and found that she had thirteen babies. I was shocked that she would do such a thing, mate so freely and so often!  After I had relocated her and her brood I found that it was the normal thing for them.  Possums come in a Baker’s Dozen!  Who knew?

Our side yard is visited by squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, birds of all varieties and the neighbors chickens.   Saying that at one of my writer’s groups, I found out that there were kittens available soon and that I could have first pick.  I knew Fate had done her work!

I didn’t take a kitten, I took a teenage cat.  Kittens are cute and cuddly, full of energy and life.  They need a lot of attention, a lot of patience and a lot of training.  I went for the one that needed love and care and a forever home.   She is named Cleo Kitty Barnes now and she co-owns my office, the front foyer when the inside door is open (her version of the Sear’s Tower Observation Deck – birds beware) and the space under the dining room buffet.  I’ll let you know when she has taken possession of the rest of the house.