jakorte's blog

Sunday; late day catnaps and a cup of cocoa. It’s the sort of barely sunny afternoon meant for blankets and nothing much, left wondering when the summer left, and thinking I’ll think about that later. I’m enjoying the sure-to-be short-lived success of two sleepers – no moaning, no rocket running – amazingly at peace within three feet of each other.

The big girl wakes up first, comes to nudge my leg and looks up at me in question. “Go for it,” I tell her. She pads a wide berth around the half hidden little guy, halting in wide eyed alarm as he sighs and stretches, only moving forward as he loses the fight to keep his exhausted kitten eyes open. Her purple, heart-shaped tag tinkles against her food dish. In less than a minute, she reappears from around the kitchen corner. She paths the same wide berth with carefully placed near-silent steps, quietly creeping along but without as much hesitation. Headed for her favorite sill, she detours a little to the right and gives me another nudge. I reward her with sweet talk and back scratches. Then she does what she always does - cuts our physical communication just a little shorter than I would like.

Not needing to gauge her launch, she lands with confident familiarity on the narrow ledge and strikes my favorite pose. It’s the one I’ve taken countless pictures of; black silhouette within a white frame, dignified and regal against today’s backdrop of cool green, rain enhanced, leaves. Head and ears tilted in different directions, she studies her tree, sharp eyed and watching.

Commenting precisely on the random breeze, “There it is,” she trills, as if I didn’t know. I answer her accurate melody with a half-breathed mutter. Reaching, resting her front feet on the arm of my chair, her golden emerald gaze comes in closer. Frank eyes blink twice at the sadness in mine. Satisfied with the scrutiny, she backs herself into my arms, and settles in true cat fasion. Slowly, as only an experienced feline can. Together now… we’re waiting, silently, for the fall.