Toby hemingway biography questions

Listen to this story: If you’re in the car, or cooking, or just lazy… you can listen to me read this story for you, in the audio file below.

We found a stray kitten in the backyard this weekend and even after my wife — teary eyed for its fate — left a saucer of milk and a blanket out, it kept desperately mewing all night. High-pitched and helpless, at just the right tone to put a parent on edge and wake me at sunrise.

I’ve written about the local cats and our distant relationship here before, and I still tend to let them do their own thing out in the yard. A kitten is new, though. This one seemed particularly hopeless. The kids grew curious, my wife still worried. I was pessimistic about its fate and figured the animal kingdom could handle it. But the mewing soon penetrated my heart.

We captured the kitten, lost it, captured it again, and on the advice of neighbors more familiar with the local strays, I called the City’s Animal Control department for help. Then lost and captured it once more. It was exhausted and fading fast. So was I.

Before the experts could

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