My friend Fred

 Fred came into my life when I was temporarily petless. In fact I almost swallowed Fred the first time we met and then had to rescue her.

 I was having my morning coffee with milk, placed the mug down beside me, wrote something, reached for the half empty mug and there was Fred swimming for dear life. I reached in with a Kleenex, lifted her out and placed her on the windowsill where she eventually crawled away. The next day Fred was back. This time she carefully hung on to the side of the mug to drink.

 I left her net alone in the corner that she had claimed amazed at how much it caught. For a few weeks she showed up everyday then for months afterwards more sporadically. Always at the same time. Sometimes my left over coffee provided some extra protein for her. Other times she just waved her front legs at me. I waved back. "Mornin' Fred".

I enjoyed her company. She became an individual. We had mutual respect for eachother and she was the cheapest pet I ever had.