Minnie continues to progress, to evolve, it’s been a couple of months since she lost her leg to some kind of animal attack and her recovery is longer, more difficult and gradual that I believed or was led to believe. The most frequent comment I heard was, “oh there are three-legged cats everywhere and they do fine,” and I am sure that is true but it is a long way from here to there.

Minnie is still struggling to find her balance, she is still wary of venturing out into the open, but there is measurable progress. Her remaining leg is beginning to shift position, moving  visibly towards the center to give her more balance and strength in jumping. She is showing off the intelligence of cats by using one object to get to another – she gets on the couch by hopping up onto an ottoman, them jumping up to the sofa She uses her front claws to pull herself up, her rear leg to gain momentum.

She has worked things out with the dogs, she trusts them, even Frieda, now, they walk past each other, sniff each other, Lenore cleans Minnie’s ears each morning while she purrs. The dogs have accepted her.

I let Minnie outside when I get up each morning, sometime between 4:30 and 6 a.m. Minnie spends the night downstairs, by the warm wood stoves. She is always eager to get out in the morning – I put some food out for her – even in the bitter cold. She is outside almost all day, either under Maria’s studio, in the woodshed or in the big barn. She mostly stays away from Flo and the other farm animals, we rarely see her out in the pasture since the injury.

Maria and I both feel it is important for her to stay outside during the day, to keep her instincts and skills as a barn cat. We would both be happy if she stayed outside permanently, but that can’t happen until she has learned to deal with her injury, it may never really happen. We’ll see.

In the afternoon, we feed Minnie and Flo and Minnie usually waits for Maria to pick her up and carry her inside, where she conks out for most of the night, it is clear the cold weather makes her leg uncomfortable, there is little sign of her hunting much. In the evening, she curls up next to me or Maria (usually Maria) and purrs for hours.

We will give her the time she needs to heal, it will be interesting to see if she wants to come inside at night when her leg has healed more and the weather warms up. Minnie is getting there, she is not there yet.