This is Abbie, the oldest of the animal children that live in our empty nest. I don’t mean to leave her out. She is usually the most normal and low-key of the bunch so it’s easy to ignore her when the others are demanding attention all the time or causing outright trouble. She is the sweetest girl, most of the time. Sophia got her in the sixth grade, so with my fuzzy math I think that makes Abbie about 8 years old.