Greetings.

Hello. My name is Pilchard.

My "sister", Mija, and I live a comfy existence with Deb in a suburb of Chicago.

We've lived here for four years now. We're both rescues. We were rescued by a wonderful woman named Valerie. She found Mija in the bushes outside her apartment building when she was but a week old. She bottle fed her, taking her to work (It helped that she worked at a vet at the time.) to make sure Mija was fed and cared for.

Me? Well, Valerie is known for cruising local pet stores and asking people if they know where that cute puppy or kitten came from. Chances are very, very good the puppy came from a puppy mill and Valerie wants everyone shopping in those stores to know that. Good pets, including purebreds, can be found in shelters.

During one of her visits, she found me and a sibling stuffed into a rabbit crate. The pet store wanted $30 for each of us. Given how miserable we looked, she was very worried we wouldn't find homes, but $60 was a lot of money for her. She went home, worked on her budget and found $60. When she went back, my sibling had been purchased. She bought me and brought me to my new home.

How did we wind up with Deb? Deb has always lived around cats. Her vet is the clinic where Valerie worked at the time. Deb had, at one time, five cats living with her. When the last of these went over the Rainbow Bridge, Deb wasn't sure she wanted another cat. Valerie was going to be moving to a new place where she couldn't bring us and she was sort of frantic about where we'd go. Deb lasted two weeks without a cat in the house. She called Valerie and said, "Yes, I want them to come live with me." That was four years ago this month.

It's a great place to live. We have boxes.

We have sunshine.

 We have windows.

Sometimes, we even get to go out on the deck, although we have to stay there or mom gets upset.

Neither Mija nor I want to roam, although there are smells I sometimes have to go check out and then mom gets upset and we don't get to go outside again for a week. She says it's too dangerous for us to wander around. That's okay. We know we're safer inside than out. Mom's a big proponent of fresh air so she'll let us come out when she's outside.

The best part is having a forever home. I'll be back next week with another tale and a couple of photos. Mom takes a lot of photos, so many that sometimes, we just don't want to pose.

See you next week.

Pilchard.