After his brief sojourn at the Animal Shelter, we didn't see much of Clarence for the first few weeks that he was back home. He crawled under the end table in the living room and only came out at night. Eventually--however--he discovered Lena and adopted her as his foster Mom. Our theory is that she was the only one of the resident cats who didn't hiss at him or try to run him off when he sidled up to her. For whatever reason, Clarence stuck to her like glue for the first year of his life and is still quite devoted to her.

Lena accepts the situation with a rather bemused equinimity.

Until Clarence came along, I had a cat in every color except Siamese. Watching his colors bloom has been a special treat for me.