Calla and Lily

A few years ago when I lived in Thornton, I surprised myself and my family by bringing home twin kittens.They were barncats but I didn't rescue them from the barn. I found them under a bush.
I saw them first when I went out to groom my horse and saw them burrowed into the spaces between bales of hay in the barn. I boarded my horse 'Teddy Bear' there for a while so I saw them daily. One day I didn't see them anywhere.I looked for them for several days.There were lots of hiding places. Eventually I found them under a bush in front of the house, quite a ways from the barn. It was a pretty nice fall season till it wasn't. In Colorado things change fast.One day it is a warm beautiful golden day the next day snow comes in sideways.I worried about them.
We have always been a home with animals, our own variety, plus those belonging to our kids when they had to find places for their animals from time to time.
Once we captured a neighbor's cat that had been left behind to fend for itself when they moved to Florida. It had disappeared as they were ready to pull out of their driveway in their U-Haul. They were devastated. When we found her we packed her up, took her to the airport and shipped her to them. I do things like that.
As time went by and the cold fall began to turn quickly into a colder winter I thought more and more about those kittens under the bush.
The day I thought about which ones I would take home if I could, I did. I chose two black and white mirror image twins. Lily had white on the right side of her nose, Calla had white on the left side of her nose. They were inseperable. Twins were a big thing in my family since I was a twin and my husband was also. I named them after my mom's favorite flowers.
I remember I had to stick my hand under that bush several times before I was able to grab and hold on to one of them. I carried one struggling black and white form after the other to the cat carrier in the car. I felt bad, they had no idea what was happening. Whatever grabbed them was not their mom. Being carried into Pet Smart while I bought up their furnishings wasn't that much fun for them either. Even the admiring smiles of other pet lovers didn't faze them.
Calla and Lily were characters. When Lily groomed her sister she would actually chew her whiskers off. I had to watch her all the time! When they both fit on my lap they sat and watched the words move across the screen on the computer in tandem. They were pretty good editors! I let them come up on my bed, come under the covers and snuggle. They slept there, one in front and the other behind my knees for a week (or so). No wonder I woke up stiff.
That was ten years ago and we live in Fort Collins now. And I only have Lily with me. She is still a character. It has been two years since Calla got out one day and never came back. The other day Lily caught sight of one of our barn cats through the window. Moonbeam looks a lot like Calla. In the past whenever Lily saw a strange cat outside she made a huge racket hissing and growling. But when she saw the other black and white kitty she sat transfixed, not a sound. Then when the cat moved out of sight she ran from window to window looking for her... meowing.