Chloe

The current feline residents of this old farmhouse are Chloe and Whiskers. Whiskers was featured in my post regarding the friends of Mickey, who vacationed under our kitchen sink this past winter. Perhaps it's time to share a little bit of Chloe, before it's too late.

I luckily inherited Chloe when I met my husband. On one of our first dates, I sat at his kitchen table, while he attempted to woo me with his culinary skills; it was the best curried lamb chop I had ever tasted. Making his way out to the barbecue, he noticed I was trying to get Chloe's attention. "She doesn't really like to snuggle or get up on one's lap," he told me. Of course, he didn't know me well enough, at that point, to know I knew the secret language of cats; it's all in the eyes. By the time he came back in from lighting the barbecue, Chloe was nestled happily on my lap and we've been good friends ever since.

Chloe wasn't exactly young, when I first met my husband, and she has aged dramatically the last few years. Now in her twentieth year, she has become a frail old spinster. She doesn't do much besides eat and sleep and by the looks of her, she does a lot more sleeping than eating. She doesn't let much of anything bother her either. She seems oblivious to the new puppy whom she looks at with disregard as if to say, 'been there, done that'.

After seeing my husband's father suffer from poor circulation, we realized this past fall that perhaps Chloe had a similar problem. Each morning, we would find her sitting on a heat register, refusing to budge until she heard the sound of kibble hitting the food bowl. We decided to indulge her and purchased a heating pad for her. We left it turned on low, under layers of a fleece blanket covered in a print of Winnie the Pooh. At one time it kept my son warm at night and it was affectionately known as his "Pooh blanket". Pooh may be a bear of very little brain, but he was a bear of great use for our frail little cat. She survived a very cold, harsh winter and while we're not sure how many more winters she is likely to endure, we take joy in watching her bask in the warm spring sunshine.