Melinda Morley

I’m feeling a little sad today.

I started out happy.

For no other reason than it’s Monday. I love Mondays. Weird, I know. But every week I pretty much never finish what I wanted to do, so Monday feels like the day to start over. Kind of like a mini New Year’s resolution. I love that part of January and that is probably the only thing I like about it.  (Too cold!)

But, then, my daughter came in the house and declared that out kitty, whom we all love very much, had caught a bird and come and see.

So I did.

And it was still pretty dark outside, but I could see the cat playing a wrestling a bird on the driveway. She is very cat-like in that she loves to play with her prey. The bird was on its back and flopping around and, yeah, I didn’t want to watch. As I was turning around to go inside, I heard a squeaking and a hissing from the bird. Lots of hissing. Lots of squeaking. And, well, birds don’t hiss. Or squeak.

And this wasn’t a bird.

It was a bat.

And now my cat and the dead bat are at the animal control place. We are waiting to see if the bat was rabid, because if it was, well, that is the end of my cat.

Darn it.

Just four days ago I was telling my friend how much my love that cat. And the thought crossed my mind “I shouldn’t get attached, because when I get attached to animals, they have a way of dying or disappearing.”

I rest my case.

But, then, cats seem to be a little more disposable than other pets–because of their tendency to roam across busy streets and to catch bats, I guess.

Wish us luck for our sweet little kitten who just barely caught her first mouse.

Actually, I’m feeling a little better because I ran. And it rained. And I was able to purge my sadness. And I went five miles and every bit of it was hard. And running is just like that. So, is life. Some days are happy and light and some days are cloudy and hard. But, we push through anyway. Right? Because that is the kind of people we are. (Where am I going with this? I don’t know. But, there is a wicked awesome storm brewing outside. And I like it.)