Maria was excited; she rushed into the farmhouse to show me the new “Caution: Deaf Cat” sign to put in the driveway. I loved it.

I hope it will help keep Flo, our newly deaf barn cat, from sleeping in the driveway, as she has been doing lately and getting run over.

Flo is a barn cat; as wild as she is domesticated, she is getting older and hears nothing, as we can make out. We’ll get her to a vet to ensure nothing is happening. But we’ve decided there isn’t much more than we can or should do. She is a wild and free thing and has been her whole life. Confining her would be cruelty in the name of mercy.

Maria was proud of her sign; she made it overnight and found a pole to fasten it to.

My job was to hammer it into the ground so trucks and cars entering the driveway could slow down and watch out for her. She has never laid down in the driveway like this, we think she’s trying to get warmer, but she avoids the heated mat we got for her.

We are agreed that we need to leave her be and live and die with dignity.

She has places to go to get warm, and we hope her instincts will still keep her alert and intelligent.