Chessie joined the family about a month after Smokey’s demise. She was dumped at our barn in a cardboard box, accompanied by two kittens, which of course were taken immediately. So on a fateful day in February I brought her home. Chessie was a ‘people’ cat; if you made a lap, you were her best friend. On her first car trip upstate for summer vacation, she revealed operatic tendencies. I believe she sang the entire Wagner “Ring” cycle between NYC and Lake George; people were actually looking at the car to see what was in there!. After 15 years she succumbed to a inoperable lymphatic tumor. To the very end, she showed her love for me by purring as I held her that final time.

- Mary Paul