The happiest cat in the world

The Farm Manager used those exact words with reference to our dear Chloe today.

That's the cat who got fixed at the clinic Karla Holmoka once worked at. Mind you, Karla was safely in a maximum security prison by the time Chloe passed through their front door, but the karma remains.

Chloe was a very anti-social cat early on. She'd hide out in the basement for weeks on end. When I moved her from Mildmay to Durham, she struck up a friendship with the neighbor to the north, Mary Ann.

I'd go weeks without a glimpse of my Chloe, although I'd imagine once in awhile I caught a glimpse of her on Mary Ann's back porch. And I was always puzzled why Mary Ann would have a cat dish on her back porch when she didn't have a cat...

Mary Ann always denied everything, and because she was a very kind elderly Bubbe I let things slide.

Then when I hooked up with the Farm Manager, before we had the farm, Chloe used to prowl that house in Owen Sound. I remember once, when I was taking care of business on the commode, Chloe emerged from the ventilation grate.

How the hell did that even happen?

She's in the basement one day, next day she's climbing out of the vent on the second floor?

But here at the farm she has totally grown into herself. She's the ground floor cat, and she sees it as her responsibility to keep the second story cat away from the litter box in the basement.

That leads to a godawful amount of hissing and swiping, but eventually the second story cat always makes it to the cat box. I think it's a game they play.

But the Farm Manager is 100% right. Chloe is today the happiest cat in the world. She has come so far from her beginnings at Karla's clinic. When I come down the stairs in the morning, she greets me by rolling onto her back and waiting for a foot rub.

That's a happy cat.