Life Goes On

The cat who showed up the day after Gus the cat was killed by a car is still here. She couldn't be more opposite in personality to him. He was born with the certainty that everyone loved him and that no one would ever hurt him, so he never met a stranger.

She's much more cautious. She knows us now and will come right to us when we go out to the workshop to feed and cuddle her, but she's only slowly expanding her territory. She's finally come outside the workshop, and will sit on the concrete pad now.

Isn't she pretty? That black stripe down her nose is really cute.



Her name is Helvetica Marie, or Halley to her (two) friends. We still haven't figured out how she came to be here, since we don't live in a place where a cat would just wander in, like in a regular neighborhood, and she's clearly not a feral cat, but she's welcome.



We still miss our Gus, though. The picture below might seem a little odd, but I had to take it for the memories it will bring later.



These are the last cards Gus ever 'played.' We were playing cards that previous weekend, and he got up on the table to give my husband some loving, then decided to knock these cards off the table. It offended him to see things on tables that clearly shouldn't be there.

He was right, of course. We didn't need the jokers and shouldn't have had them on the table. Gus always knew best.

You may notice the pen in the picture too. Gus didn't believe that pens belonged on tables; his eyes would light up whenever he saw one, and down it would go. We're not sure why pens were so much fun to knock on to the floor but we got used to it.



Yes, I know those cards have been on the floor for over a week now, but if we pick them up, it means he's really gone, doesn't it?