We love you, Sidney

This little cat who is the companion of our home,

Keep him safe as he goes abroad,

And bring him back to comfort us.

No sign of Sid. By now, if he's alive, he hasn't eaten in two days. Probably he's hurt. I hope he's dead--a blindsiding smack from a tire, a neck-snapping bite from a coyote; there's two feet of snow outside. Liam dreamt last night that some stranger had let Sid in, and fed him, and doesn't want to let him go because he's such a sweetheart. I can live with that rendering. I can advance it as fact, even. I probably will.

* * *
So I'm moving to Annapolis, friends! And feeling quite good about it, now that I've spent the weekend hammering out my parents' plans with them. They're selling their house--the old family house. I worried--I looked for signs that Mom was unhappy about it; she's resisted all talk of moving in the past. But she looks decided and a bit relieved, and I wonder now if my presence here was keeping them from taking their own steps. They'll stay around here for a few more years in a smaller place, then move down to Annapolis as well. It gives me time to get settled--to have them down for holidays and vacations, and to help them make their own transitions.

Now, if only Sid would scratch at the door--it would all be perfect.