Left Behind

I know better than to allow my cat to sit on my lap immediately after letting him in from an hour or more outside.

But he has those eyes.   You know, the ones that melt you when he looks up at you.

This morning, my cat came in after about an hour of slinking about in the juniper and sage below my house.  Against my better judgement, I let him sit on my lap while I drank a cup of coffee and sat there wondered why we don’t have two thumbs on each hand.

That would be so awesome!

When I swept the cat off my lap so I might trot off to refill my cup, I found the following left behind:

1 rather large brush-stroke of his hair

1 small, crumpled leaf of some kind

1 small pine beetle

3 cheatgrass seeds

I will admit, when I was a kid, my bed likely sported a lot of the same relics.  I often climbed into bed directly after a full day of “exploring” the vacant fields and cottonwood groves near our house.  My mother sometimes made my bigger sisters change my bedding.  I think my sister Debbie is the one who once complained: “I don’t want to change Mitch’s sheets.  They are always full of dirt and sand!”

Given this, I make allowances for my cat.

—Mitchell Hegman