Flo surprised me today, I have a completely different sense of her story, of her past. I knew Red would be calm and easy around Emma, our visitor today, but I didn’t expect Flo to come out of the barn and lie down next to Red (who she avoids) and Emma. To my knowledge, she has almost never shown herself when strangers come to the farm, she was hiding in our woodshed for months before we even knew she was there. But I see now that she surely belonged to a family at one point, she was astonishingly gentle with Emma, who rubbed her belly, patted her repeatedly, even pulled gently on her tail.

Clearly, this cat has been around children, and clearly, she loves being around them. Each day, Flo has revealed herself and the story I wrote for her – she was a tough barn cat waiting for the right time to appear – was incorrect. I am certain now, especially after watching her lie still for Emma for 20 minutes, that she belonged to a family and was either abandoned or she ran away. I suppose I will never know precisely what happened to Flo, just what her story is but I piecing together a new one.

Flo has a high comfort level with people, is not skittish around them and has a deep reservoir of affection.