My house is very different now, as is the yard. The trees no longer block the sunshine as they hang over the front stoop and cover the back yard from fence to patio. I may even get some grass growing under the mulberry. Or not--it's been shaded for so long, I'm not sure the grass will ever recover.

The extra sunlight is very welcome now, in the cold shortened days of winter. Come spring, I hope they leaf out sufficiently to provide protection from the intense heat of August and September, but if not this year, then definitely the year following.

Callie seems to be resigned to her fate as an indoor cat. Even as a young cat, she never was much of a tree-climbing wanderer, but, like many humans, she resented the loss of freedoms she had not exercised in the first place.

Sound familiar?