I haven’t seen Mother for a day and half, and that always gets my  radar going. She’s vanished for a couple of days before, but I usually see her at some point. Maria thinks she saw her crossing the road today, up towards the woods. That’s the thing about barn cats. One day they disappear. It’s way premature to think she’s gone or that anything has happened to her – Mother knows how to take care of herself. But you always worry a bit about a barn cat, even one as independent and savvy as she is.

A farmer’s wife warned me once never to get too attached to a Barn Cat. “They always disappear one day,” she said. “Always. They will break your heart if you let them get too close to it.” I suspect Mother will be at her food bowl in the morning and that she has been wreaking havoc somewhere up in the woods. She would rather find her food than be handed it, where Minnie rarely leaves the barn or the area around the farmhouse.  It makes me think about the life of a barn cat, though, unique among animals we live with or near. The farmer’s wife was right.