My Cat Chaplin's Little Travel Story Published in Ladies Home Journal (First Column on Bottom) , July 2010

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McKenna's Annual Thanksgiving Letter

Nov. 22, 2018 Dear McKenna: Eighteen years ago I sat down to write your very first Thanksgiving letter when I was 34 years old and you were spending your first Thanksgiving with your mom and dad. I was working as a data entry operator, living with a roommate, the re-make of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with Jim Carey just came out, and I had a Tonkinese cat named Chaplin and a mutt, Ripley who charmed everyone. I remember when I sat down to write that letter at my roommate’s computer looking out at his French door windows at his back yard and all the emotions I was feeling at the time – imagining you with your family at Thanksgiving, happy that you were safe and warm in your new home, content that I had made the right decision, and thankful that I could sit down and type those words to you. I had always promised myself that every birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas I would sit down and write a letter to you and though I missed a couple, which I reg
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By Terri Rimmer He told me he really missed me and could I come see him for Christmas in one of the home towns I lived in, Smyrna, Georgia. My heart sank as I knew I had to work and it was our busiest season, though I still wanted to see him as I told him New Year’s Eve weekend might be a possibility. For the first time I didn’t have any travel anxiety as many times as I’ve traveled, which was nice. I had a dream before I left that I got off the plane and there he was, hugging me tight and not letting go. I didn’t have any nightmares like I usually do before I make my yearly birthday trip. I have had nightmares every night since I was three. This “he” I speak of is Terry, one of my former foster fathers, a lifetime Church of Christ member who I’ve kept in touch with since the 80s. My foster mom, Peggy passed away in 1983. Terry got remarried in 1988 to a woman named Ann, also a lifelong Church of Christ member. Terry graduated from high school in 1968, having
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