INTRODUCING GRACE

I said when I started blogging that I would eventually write something about each of our pets. This post is long overdue.

Grace is our "senior cat" and is now a little over 15 years old. I first saw her in the neighborhood following some kids down the street as they walked home from the school bus stop. She was a kitten and was happily running along after them.

I might have seen her once or twice after that, but on the night before Thanksgiving 1994 one of my son's friends came to the front door and found her sleeping on our scarecrow's lap. (I had the front porch decorated with a large stuffed scarecrow sitting on a bale of hay.) It was cold that night and so he brought her inside. She took one look at our dog and the two of them became instant friends and started playing. She made herself right at home.

My husband went around the neighborhood trying to find out who owned her and we were told she belonged to some people on the next block who had gone away for Thanksgiving. When they returned he was told that she had been hanging around for a while and they had been feeding her, but she didn't really belong to them and they didn't want to keep her. So, she found her forever home with us. Since she arrived the night before Thanksgiving, and grace always comes before Thanksgiving dinner, we named her Grace.

She and our dog Shelby were good friends until we lost Shelby to old age.

When she was younger she enjoyed sitting in the warm clothes dryer.

And every year I follow the Peregrine Falcons online that nest on the top of an office building in Jersey City, NJ. Grace thinks it's fun too.

She's just a real sweet cat and I hope she's with us for a long, long time.