Our House Is Empty Without a Cat

It’s a Saturday morning in February and the beginning of Mary’s week-long school vacation. So even though it’s 10:45, I’ll let her sleep in, as she warned me she would want to do.  No worries. I am doing favorite Saturday morning puttering, getting the mail, making the grocery lists and emptying the dishwasher.

Today I got a call from Kristin, the sheep farmer in Leyden who has raised our next kitten until 8 weeks. Tomorrow, as long as the snow isn’t too bad, we will drive up to Leyden and bring the new kitten home.

I never realized how much I missed having a cat for the company until Mamma cat died about four months ago.  I thought of a name and then it was soundly rejected by people close to me. Oh well.  For some reason, this name is sticking with me. But we can’t decide for sure until we meet her, so we agreed to wait until the cat actually lives here to name her.

Next week I have to go to New Jersey to spend time with my ailing dad and mom.  I am glad Mary will be here all week to pet our new kitty and make her feel welcome. I just hope that this little creature can figure out that the litter box is downstairs and that she should always use it!  I am thinking though that she’ll be an outdoor cat, since our other cat always went outside until the last year. This makes it all a little easier for sure.

So from now on as I work alone in my basement office, I will have a little company. Someone who I will inevitably talk to, regularly, whether she answers or not.