Merrry Christmas!!!
I got an early Christmas present from the universe last night—the best kind! Those of you who know me know I’m crazy about cats, and that my home in the mountains butts up against a forest preserve. I’ve seen rattlesnakes in my driveway, bears on my deck and once, shortly after we moved in, some kind of very large black puma-looking thing standing across the road staring at me. (We also have albino skunks that adore Moonie and hang around during the daytime with her. They haven't sprayed us. Yet.)
Last night topped it all. I’ve never been so close to unleashed wild. (Well, the rattlesnake was only half a dozen feet from me but that didn’t feel like a mystical experience. It felt like a near-death one.) Around five-thirty, I went out on my deck to bring in the birdfeeders. If I don’t, the raccoons toss them around the yard, or worse, the bears come back up on the deck. I try to avoid that. They weigh a lot and gouge up the wood with their claws when they climb.
As I glanced over the edge I saw a very large cat lying beneath my bird feeder. I mean really large. I stood there trying to process just how large it was, babbling stupidly along the lines of “aren’t you the most gorgeous thing?” and "what a magnificent kitty!" and the cougar lay there with its head tipped back, looking at up me as if to say, but of course I am, how could I be otherwise. I am Cat and I could eat you if I wanted to. (Reminded me of some of the men I write about.)
Some say the eastern cougars don’t make it up this far. They do. I saw one. It was lying four feet from my back patio, fifteen feet beneath me. I watched it for a good half minute until my husband came home, honking the horn as he entered the drive. The cat stood, stretched, loped off into the woods as if merely bothered, not frightened at all. It certainly hadn’t been the least bit spooked by me.
I suppose that should spook me a little, but somehow it doesn’t. Maybe I’m stupid and next week you’ll read WRITER EATEN BY COUGAR IN NORTH GEORGIA in some paper. LOL. As long as it doesn’t eat Moonie.
Today is the final day of the Twelve Days of Christmas contest at my website. The prize is a $100.00 gift certificate to Bloomingdales, so do stop by and enter.
Come the New Year I’ve got some very exciting news to announce (no, it’s not about the release date of Faefever, sorry!) but I think you’ll be delighted with it.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Day and that the coming year brings you many gifts from the universe!
