A Favorite Kitty Flower

Cleo in the garden

This is Miss Cleo. She was my mother's cat and is just now beginning to feel like she belongs with that "Rough crowd" upstairs. Though she has lived in the same house as we do for over 6 years, she has always stayed in her own little patch of house and garden downstairs in my mother's apartment. She is afraid of our dogs, Molly and Sam, and most people. She gets along with my cat Lilly, but she and Pepper give each other the evil eye.

When my mother adopted Cleo and her brother, Leo, 12 years ago, they were feral kittens ... about 6 months old. Leo was the bravest of the two but disappeared shortly after mom moved into the apartment downstairs. Cleo still remains to this day very shy and afraid of the dogs, but finally she is getting better. For a while, she seemed very depressed and I know missed my mother after she moved into the nursing home. I thought I might have to find another home for her with an older person with no other pets. But we've hung in there and it seems to be paying off. Sam doesn't want to chase her anymore and she seems to trust him just a bit.

Cleo has her very own special room next to my studio. It is also a store room for all my junk but she doesn't seem to mind. I've fixed the door with a hook and eye so that the dogs can't fit through the narrow opening and it's there that she spends most of her time when she is indoors. I feed her there and she has a kitty pan and cushions and blankets to snuggle in. She doesn't seem attracted to her old stomping grounds downstairs, except for the garden outside the door where she frequently sits, taking in the sun. She is a lovely, special flower!