Minnie is affectionate for a barn cat. I got Minnie from a waitress at a restaurant in Salem, N.Y. She had some feral kittens she wanted to find homes for and I wanted a companion for Minnie. Maria was having lunch with me several years before either of us got divorced and she came with me to pick Minnie up in a tiny hamlet near the Vermont border. They have been tight ever since. Minnie’s day begins with a cuddle from Maria and then she moves on to the mayhem and mystery of the barn cat.