Minnie has a better life on three legs than many cats do on four. I wasn’t sure about having her injured leg amputated, and I’m not still not certain it was appropriate to inflict so much pain and suffering on her, but I do concede she has gotten her life back as a barn cat. I love barn cats, they are independent, resourceful, intelligent. I see them hunting mice out in the meadow, hanging out with the chickens,  soaking up the sun, funding places to hang out.

We put out a wooden box to hold kindling for the wood stoves, Minnie has adopted it. She sits on the top – we put a pad out for her – and as the sun shifts, she curls up in the bottom. She sun hits the crate, it also offers shelter from the wind and rain, and she loves to be near the house, she talks to us all the time as we go in and out. It is also a good place to collect scraps and treats, which every animal of Maria’s (mine too, I admit) enjoy.