30 Days of Giving Thanks - Day 5 - Meenie...the Cat

I spent some time this morning going through a couple hundred photographs, and pulled ones that I took of other people who I will be thanking in the upcoming week. More about the photographs and recipients will be posted during the next few days.

Since I didn't move beyond sorting photographs (to the actual thank-you-letter-writing process), I didn't have too many options left at the end of the day. So, as I began typing, I looked to my right and there sat Meenie, the cat.

Meenie.

Yes, Meenie was the recipient of a thank you today. She sleeps almost every night on my back and keeps me warm. She's the smallest of the five cats weighing less than six pounds.

She was part of litter from a local farmer who was going to "get rid of" the trio of kittens that remained from a litter of six (or was it eight?). Knowing that "getting rid of" meant something not terribly humane, I took all three kittens.

Meenie was accompanied by her brothers - Eenie and Miney. Unfortunately, a few years ago, Miney escaped out the back door and never returned. He was a great cat. I still miss him.

Eenie is still around and recently did a "pet therapy" visit with Sophia who took him to see my dad who has Alzheimer's Disease and just recently moved into a nursing home.

Meenie, Eenie, and Lucy.

Rarely do Eenie and Meenie sit by one another.

I was so happy to get this picture of them together.

Meenie and Eenie join the other three cats who wandered onto the farm in subsequent years. Lucy and his sister (yes, Lucy is actually a male cat...Sophia named him when she was three years old), were only a few weeks old when I found them wandering in the pasture. Apparently the mother abandoned them or was killed by a predator. We ended up raising them - even before they could eat solid food.

The last cat to join the family was Shadow. He also showed up at the farm one day and gradually spent more time here. By the winter, it was getting very cold.

One day it had reached 25 degrees below zero, and the windchill was at about 40 degrees below zero. Shadow was in the hobby shed. Luckily, he allowed me to put him in a cat carrier and bring him indoors. He spent time inside, but was eager to go back outside after about a week (the temperatures were much warmer).

However, by the following fall, Shadow wanted to come inside and no longer wanted to be an outdoor cat. He's been an inside cat since that time.

So, Meenie is one of five cats. She is a very special cat...one that would not be here to keep me warm on chilly, windy nights like tonight...had the farmer not put out a "free kittens" sign by his driveway. For that...I am very thankful.