Today was cold and overcast and Minnie and Flo spent some time in the barn. But yesterday was the kind of day that makes our cats want to spend their time sleeping on the back porch.
And for a little while I was with them, trying to experience what they were.
I sat on the slate steps, the sun in my eyes, then leaned back resting my back and head on the warm porch floor. Within moments, Minnie came over to me and nuzzled her way in the space between my arm and body, inviting me into her world.
We both closed our eyes and lay still as cats in the sun.
I felt the heat radiate off the slate, the warmth of the sun on my face. I listened to the birds, so many different songs, and thought, this is what the cats hear. I counted the seconds between the swish of cars going by in front of the house on Route 22. I tried to distinguish which way the car were going by the sound I heard, but couldn’t.
My mind drifted into a waking-dream state. I could still feel the hard porch floor under my body, the heat on my face, and wondered if this is how the cats feel for the hours and hours that they sleep on the back porch. Their bodies in one world, their minds another.
I don’t know how long I stayed there, maybe 20 minutes or so. And in that time it was like I knew what it felt like to be a cat, living between the worlds of waking and sleeping, a completely different reality than mine.
Such Andrew Wyeth colors!!! Beautiful.
OH I can see that Eileen.
Loved this picture, I agree, it’s so Andrew Wyeth! I respect cats for this very thing – the ability to “zen out” no matter what they are lying upon. One of ours settled in on top of a plastic tool case that held socket wrenches. She curled up on top of them all and slept!! Makes me wonder if they are meditating, they sure seem to hover between the 2 worlds, don’t they? Little Buddhas.
Cats know how to find the best sleeping places. Working tools become a napping place. A message maybe….