Her friends benefit from her prodigious output of original sweaters. I m never cold. She worries that her animal friends might be, however. As the weather grew frosty last year, all but one of the squirrels she d raised had scampered off. One day, a sodden and disheveled bird found its way into the room, fluttered up to the heating pad, warmed itself and left again.
Baby still hangs around.
Soon, she ll help her newest babies ready themselves for freedom. She ll wedge their house up in the flowering crab, but it will be days before they ll be brave enough climb down. Sonja will watch over them, feed them. And should a cat dare step foot in the yard, the woman will treat it to an ear-splitting screech she patterned after a Tom cat s yowl. And though she knows her animals must return to the wild, her heart always aches with loss.