THE NARRATIVE ARC
How One Cat Made a Home in My Heart
A story of love and loss
When my wife and I bought a little farm in the autumn of 2017, we decided to raise chickens and grow organic produce. We discussed the possibility of raising dairy goats too but as we thought about the work involved, our ages, and how little we actually knew about it, we decided to abandon that idea. I was still teaching, and there were only so many hours in the day.
In order to keep the rodent population under control, we discussed adopting “barn cats” from the local humane society. Barn cats are semi-feral cats that are not suited to be pets but are not completely wild, either. The problem with indoor cats is that they would not be out patrolling for rodents. The problem with barn cats was one of loyalty. What exactly would keep them from running off? Unfortunately, not much.
During this time, we heard that a neighbor down the road had a cat who just had a litter. One day, I came home from work and found that my wife had gone there and adopted two of the female kittens. Of course, my introduction to these two new members of our household was having to get a ladder and get them down from the tree they climbed up.
When I told my wife she could name them, she chose the names Willow and Hazel. To my undiscerning…
