Souls and Pussycats

After a lot of scurrying about and joyful anticipation, our humans threw a party in the back yard a couple of days ago. We checked it out and made sure they were entertained properly. It was lovely. It had been raining, so one human got busy a few days earlier and put up a big blue rustling flapping something which draped off the edge of the roof and over a rope. Mom and The Other Mom set up a couple tables. One of them was next to an empty chair, but the table had all kinds of interesting stuff on it, including food, which of course I checked out most carefully. It was just high enough off the ground that we could check it out and even walk on it. The humans were very amused. They were sitting in chairs under the blue, inside a circle of autumn leaves on the ground, and flowers from people's gardens. And they were talking. One of them was the woman who takes care of us when our people are away, so of course Acorn made sure she hadn't forgotten her responsibilities and went straight to the fridge when she arrived.

I padded all around the circle and turned my big blue eyes onto the unsuspecting humans (actually, they know cats fairly well, so it wasn't so unsuspecting after all), checked out the food, and nearly got on the empty chair. But then I realized the humans had other guests, so I said a courteous hello instead and kept going.

If you were a human, you wouldn't have been able to see the other guests, but they were very nice. Grandmotherly types. Some that worked very hard and appeared to be working hard now. I recognized a very friendly man who used to come over to the house and fuss over us. We hadn't seen him since this spring. Mom talked about him.

All in all, it was a wonderful party. It only rained a little, and the air was fresh and clear. A nice morning out. And every time the humans spoke, the wind blew, fresh, wet and clean, bringing company in. They noticed. Not all humans do.

And then we all trooped inside after it was over and ate some more, and the humans decided to play music and sing. That was when I made my exit. Acorn, however, curled up between two humans and became the center of attention. He's usually more reserved; this time, he was shamelessly trolling for pats and scritches, and got them.

That was fun. Can we do that again sometime?
Love and purrs from Elfstone Chestnut Pussycat