I re-posted “Welcoming the Day” in my last blog entry because I had once again woken up to the vocalizations of a Band-tailed Pigeon and I had a strong recollection of the first morning that had happened. The same event played out once again this morning, but the pigeon was not alone. After drifting easily and pleasantly to consciousness with the soft cooing sound drifting down from above, I started to hear the intermittent, single-note, metallic sounding whistle of a Varied Thrush coming from somewhere nearby. He was answered by another thrush whistling back at him from an undetermined distance. I might have gotten out of bed to investigate, but I discovered that I was trapped.
My 16-pound cat Oliver lay on my left side, snuggled up against my body on top of the blankets. My 17-pound cat Henry was on my right, also snuggled against my side and also on top of the blankets. I was firmly pinned to the mattress as the cats’ combined weight pressed down on the blanket on both sides of me. My third cat, Otis, weighing in at a mere 14 pounds, noticed that my eyes were open and jumped up onto the bed. He proceeded to lay down on top of my legs, ruling out the possibility of my sliding up and out of the sheets and escaping from the opening at the top.
As the two-part choir in the yard was joined by a third, cawing voice, I laid my hands on top of Oliver and Henry and began to scratch their backs. In unison, they began to purr. Henry emitted his deep, satisfied rumbling and Oliver settled into his slightly more airy version of kitty bliss. Sandwiched between them it felt like I was getting a light massage on both of my flanks. I looked down at Otis who was looking back at me with half-closed, very content eyes. I let my head fall back onto the pillow, and dozed off again with sounds both wild and domestic ringing in my ears.
No comments:
Post a Comment