Meet Cleo

About a month ago Lee Ann came across a troop of three tiny kittens at the barn where she works.  This is an occupational hazard - there are always unwanted litters being born to the semi-wild mom cats who live in the barns and fields.  Even if you don't really want another pet, if you are Lee Ann and have a tender spot for animals in peril you get one anyway.  She caught one of the kittens, then about four weeks old, and brought her home, and that kitten has become our Cleo.


We have been on a long downslope with pets.  Former supersonic dog Danny is thirteen, a two-time cancer survivor who sleeps more and more of the day.  Cat Stitches is twelve, once lean and mean but now pudgy - though still mean.  Both have lost a step or three.  Enter Cleo, who dashes around the house climbing the drapes and leaping from hiding like her tail is on fire.  It is as if we have staged the bearded oldster 2016 giving way to the bouncing baby 2017 with our animal corps, and while it will take more than the stroke of midnight for the torch to pass we are definitely positioning for the handoff.  Here's to fifteen more years of clawed upholstery.