Needy roommates...

A stay at Chateau Acorn wouldn't be complete without animal companionship. Throughout my brief residency, I was regularly entertained by the antics of housecats Booj and Lulu.

Booj, aka"the one eye says it all," made his nightly rounds. First came the insistences to be allowed outside for a hunting spree; then came the bedraggled onslaught of meowing at 3am, after carefully leaving his kill on the front doorstep.

Then there's Lulu, the well-intentioned, yet not quite as sharp sister cat. One afternoon, she was spooked by the neighbor's Alsatian and found herself stuck in a pine tree--which required rescue. After this episode, Lulu has become more of a homebody, particularly pleased to tuck herself under the duvet covers in the daytime, and on top of one's legs at night, all purrs.