Lalena

Our Dramatic Little Lady

Lalena joined our family in 2015, taking the place of another outdoor cat who had wandered off one day and never came home. We named her Lalena, after the Donovan song, because she was dramatic and vocal right from the beginning. And, honestly, the name still fits. Lalena is a sweet, affectionate girl who absolutely adores Emmy. In fact, she loves Emmy so much that, more than a decade later, she still thinks Emmy should pick her up whenever she gets the chance. When Lalena first came to us, she was strictly an indoor cat. She also had a very unusual hobby: Unrolling toilet paper. Not eating it. Not shredding it. Just carefully unrolling the entire roll onto the bathroom floor. For a while, keeping the bathroom doors closed was simply part of living with Lalena. Over the years, Lalena became the senior welcoming committee for the other cats, greeting Felicia and Senora when they joined the family and showing them the ropes. Then we moved to Handley Ranch. The house here was considerably smaller than the one the cats had been used to, so we decided it was time to transition them to life outdoors. Lalena did not agree with this plan. In fact, she was terrified. She disappeared into the crawl space underneath the house and stayed there for days. Getting her comfortable with her new surroundings took time, patience, and a very slow introduction to the great outdoors. Eventually, though, Lalena discovered that Farm life wasn't so bad after all. These days, she happily spends her time around the Ranch with Felicia and Senora, and she has become particularly fond of hanging out in the hot-tub enclosure. She's still dramatic. She's still vocal. She still loves Emmy. And we're pretty sure that if there were a roll of toilet paper nearby, she'd still know exactly what to do with it.That's our Lalena. And we're awfully glad she came home.