Homeless no more

I've been missing my dear departed old cats, Lucy and Turtle, but had decided not to get another pet for a while. But the Robbinsdale house just felt too still and cold. Meanwhile, at his south Minneapolis apartment, Noah was feeling the same way. So we went to the Humane Society -- Noah in December, me in February -- and looked for strays. I wanted an older cat, one no one else might want that would nonetheless do well in my home. Noah wanted a kitten.

The Humane Society in Golden Valley had taken in a batch of unwanted kittens, one of them this 10-week-old female. Who'd want this mottled little calico with the pleading meow?

Her name is now Cosette (after the heroine in "Les Miserables," who was also an orphan), and she happily rules the roost at Noah's place, where she likes to hide in paper bags and race up and down the wooden-floored hallway.

In February, the Humane Society took this photo of a sick, scared, tattered older stray with frostbitten ears, nose and paws that someone had brought in from the extreme cold. The staff named her, not without irony, Paris. When Noah and I went to the shelter scout out cats, that name caught our eye, so we did a little visiting with her. She was shy and affectionate, and I fell for her.

She's not quite as regal as the city of Paris, but she IS sweet, so I named her Dulcie, Latin for "sweet." Her frostbite is healing, her mats are gone, her cold is vanquished and she's a quiet, sweet, affectionate pet. Still miss longtime pets Lucy and Turtle, but this new little waif is finding her way into my heart, too. Thanks, Noah, for helping me pick her out!

Dulcie is a polydactyl cat, which means she has extra toes. Hers are so large they make her paws look like mittens. A lot of people don't want poly cats, but I didn't mind. Here she is with her beloved catnip mouse, made a few years back by Mary Jane Smetanka's late mom and found recently under my piano, where Lucy must have pushed it a few years ago. A gift from old cat to new!

Postscript: I know my beloved Joe and Mavis are very allergic to animals, so no worries, we won't be bringing Dulcie or Cosette down to the Old Frontenac place, but will keep that place allergy-free for them. But it's nice to have the animals warming our Twin Cities homes!