From the Tower
I’m sitting in my octagon tower writing room looking out the big window at the vista that stretches all the way to Mount St. Helena, the tallest peak in Napa County. My heart thrills to see the whole sanctuary family together way down the hill, grazing in the meadow around the giant oak there—the three donkeys, Pegasus, and the four sheep. The fact that the sheep have ventured so far means that Chloe, their queen, has recovered from whatever ailed her for a few days. At her advanced age of 12, whenever she shows the least sign of illness, I worry she is on her way out. As with my dream for Pegasus that she have a good amount of time to enjoy a horse companion before she goes, I hoped for Chloe to be able to enjoy her new flock and her new position of leadership for longer. Prayers answered.
Now a new prayer for a missing cat. A neighbor’s Bengal cat Akeru has been gone for three days. In this area, there are coyotes. A lanky shaggy one ran across our hilltop in the middle of the day about a month ago. I prayed that Akeru was just on walkabout, returning to his wild Bengal state for a time. Last night, Akeru and his companion JuJu came to me in my dreams, Akeru limping back from his absence, barbed wire snagged around his back leg. In the dream, I called him into the house and began using wire cutters to carefully snip away the dangerous wire. This morning I walked part of the fence line on the perimeter of the sanctuary, just in case. No Akeru. Sending prayers for his safe return.
