<p style="text-align:center;"><em>A Guest Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara</em></p>
Our oldest daughter lives in Abilene, Texas as a student at Hardin Simmons University.  She spent her freshman year in the dorm then moved to a campus apartment.  This summer she has moved to a house owned by the university—a  converted duplex. It is very cute.

Her bedroom is one of the former living rooms so it’s large with lots of windows and its own entrance.  She uses the extra kitchen as a “coffee bar.”  I went to visit her last week and we had a great time.

I left on Wednesday morning. Thursday evening she called sounding distressed because Abilene was experiencing hail – very large hail.<a href="https://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/hail.png"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4837" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/hail.png?w=112" alt="hail" width="112" height="150" /></a>

The hail had come through the double paned windows into her room.

It was very frightening for her.

Fortunately her house has a carport so her car and her roommate’s car were unharmed. Beekeeper Brian aka her daddy told her to report the damage to the campus police and have them come secure the house.

When she called, she was number eight on the campus list. It turns out every north facing window on campus was broken as well as those in the nearby hospital.

Nearly a week later, the windows still haven’t been replaced. Ever resourceful, Catherine and her roommate used duct tape and plastic tablecloths to patch the holes temporarily.

<a href="https://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/sam.png"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-4838" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/sam.png?w=119" alt="sam" width="119" height="150" /></a>Over the weekend, Catherine acquired a kitten which she named Sam.

Catherine is already the proud owner of a dog – Bella – but her college schedule is not conducive to caring for a dog – especially one as special as Bella.

So she and her roommate decided to get a cat for the summer.  Sam came from Catherine’s boyfriend’s family and can be returned when school starts if keeping him becomes too difficult.

One of Catherine’s first comments was “Now I am responsible for a living thing.”  Yes, yes you are, I thought.

I remember having that same reaction when we brought Catherine home from the hospital. It was a little overwhelming at first.  Then instincts kick in and suddenly you become responsible.

Catherine must remember to feed the cat. And when the cat gets frightened, she must comfort it.  This is offers a different level of pet therapy.  Instead of being comforted or amused, a pet owner sometimes has to be brave and strong. Valuable traits and worth instilling in any human.

The next time Abilene has a storm, I can imagine Catherine putting on her brave face and cuddling Sam. They’ll both feel better when the storm passes.