We have evolved quite a bit in our ideas about barn cats in recent months and since Minnie’s leg amputation. Minnie and Flo come into the farmhouse in the late afternoon and stay until the early morning. One thing Maria and I are both very clear about – they go out each morning, no matter the weather or the temperature, there are many places for them to go and hunt, find shelter and hide. On mornings like this one – this has been an almost unrelentingly gray winter – Minnie in particular seems reluctant to go outside. I went out to collect some firewood for the wood stoves and I saw her traveling from the chicken roost – where she gets water – to the barn, where she holes up in a haystack while it’s snowing.

I have seen Minnie and Flo both hunting outside and I am determined they keep their lives as barn cats, that they move around, explore and hunt. Seeing Minnie hobble across the snow on her three legs, I was tempted to call her in, but stopped myself. She has to keep  her life. Barn cats are among the most independent and mysterious creatures I have seen, I don’t want either of them to lose that.