Leo

This is a picture of Leo, but it's a bit old. He always stayed small but not quite that small. Leo adopted me. He was a neighborhood cat apparently abandoned by renters. I started putting food out for cats hanging out in my yard (because I had a bird feeder and no gate blocking access) and he was one of them who came by. He had the sweetest personality - he started coming inside the house and taking long naps, or getting protection from weather. He never bothered about my birds. But, he never could stand to stay in for very long. Last spring he got an abscess in his leg from cat fights. He had to have surgery to cut it out and had to take medicine and stay inside for 10 days. He was so miserable once he was feeling better but still having to stay inside. He might go away for a few days and then come back - if the food I had was more to his liking he'd be around several times a day. Sometimes I'd be getting in my car to go to work and he'd come running up from somewhere, his four little feet going as fast as they could while he called to me to wait for him and let him in the house or feed him or whatever he wanted.

Well, Leo is gone now, I think. I haven't seen him in two weeks, which is unprecedented. I didn't see any paw prints in our last snow and I was looking for him to make sure he wasn't out in the weather. I thought maybe he was at someone else's house, but more days passed and there's been no sign of him. I miss him, but as days pass I really don't think I'll be seeing him again.