It was not all curses and evil, though. Her greatest comfort was Crookshanks as the weather warmed. Her sweet familiar who regularly presented her with rabbits and chickens had begun to present her with bigger and bigger catches. The week before he had left a dead elk at the doorstep that she had been excited about for multiple reasons. She had skinned the beast, prepared the hide and hung it to dry out to make a fur to line her son’s bassinets. Then she had rendered the muscles, the sinews, the organs, and the fat. She sold half the meat at the market, dried a quarter, and put the rest into a mixture to feed herself and Crooky.