Joe, our landscaper, stopped me while I was heading up the blackberry path for lunch, and offered us a cat. We needed a new rat catcher for the barn, so I encouraged him to run it by my husband.

As the sun snuck below the sky on a crisp Monday evening, I arrived early to my dance studio on High Street and received horrible news - the studio was closing. I sat right down and stuck my nose in a book to avoid openly crying.