Note: this was posted 8 years ago yesterday. Winter is the best companion. For two years after his arrival, his origins were mysterious. No one replied to my notices about him, posted in our area and on Craigslist. And he settled in very happily. And then we found out where he’d come from, which made his arrival slightly less mysterious but still quite amazing: he’d left his previous home, several miles away, across a lake in a water-access cabin. He’d come through the woods in winter and he found us. When we learned of his previous life, we had his former family over to dinner to spend time with him. So we know now that he was 2 years old when he came to us which makes him 10 now. The other day when he went to the vet for his booster vaccinations and a check up, she pronounced him a perfect weight and in excellent health! And the rocking chair is still a favourite place.
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… we fed him. (We think the cat is a male but we’re not actually sure.) He came out of the woods on the coldest days, timid at first, wild. I put out dishes of food and he’d approach quickly, but without making any eye contact. But he’s not wild at all. Abandoned, maybe. Because it’s so cold, I made him a bed in a sheltered area, with an old pillow and some polar fleece. When I went to straighten it while he was eating the other morning, I found a tiny dead shrew tucked into one fold of the fleece. (Just in case?) I’ve put a note on Craigslist and a little card on the community mailboxes where everyone in our sparsely-populated area collects mail. Silence so far. This morning he came in and looked around. He found the rocking chair by the fire.
...Theresa Kishkan 