Some people like to think outside the box. Scout prefers to think inside the bag.
This is where he has been sitting while I do chores in the kitchen. He studies my activities and I always wonder what he’s thinking. Whatever it is, he’s not saying and I’m smart enough to not ask!
Whether it’s outside the box or inside the bag, we should all work a little harder at simply thinking things through. Let’s take a page from Scout’s book and pause to think about something useful today.
Scout did fine when I left for the weekend this last time. His patience for my gallivanting ebbs and flows with the frequency and longevity of my absences.
My parents take good care of him while I’m away and he likes them fine but they aren’t me. So he’s always excited to see me come home and has been much more affectionate than normal this week.
He has been putting himself to bed early every night, claiming his spot next to me – always touching me but never actually on top of me. He’s not a lap cat and wouldn’t want to seem too eager.
Still, I know he’s thrilled to be close and to have me home. All is right in his world.
I rearranged the furniture in my home office, replacing my work space at the window with a bird viewing station for my coworker Scout. That’s an old steamer trunk from my grandparents’ basement that I have lugged around my house for years. It’s the perfect height for Scout to view his feathered friends from a safe distance and behind glass.
He nearly wore himself out yesterday as the cardinals and several other birds swooped in and dive bombed all day. He sleeps better when the birds wear him out so I encourage his participation in their mealtime.
I appreciate his verve for life and his devotion to his work overseeing his friends at the feeder. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it!
Christmas brought me a new jigsaw puzzle. This 500 piece puzzle features some cute woodland creatures gathered around a fire in a forest clearing.
It’s larger in size than a typical puzzle and the pieces are cut in unusual ways. They aren’t uniform and some are rather large while others are kind of small. I knew it would be hard because so much of the image is dark night sky and snowy trees.
I had no idea it would be the hardest puzzle I have ever worked on.
It has been set up on the dining room table for couple of weeks. If I have a few minutes, I stop and fiddle with it a bit. Some of the pieces are cut odd oddly enough you can’t tell if they’re border pieces or if they are just cut straight. Edges are usually my first step and I build inward. For this one, I did what I could with the edges before focusing on the animals.
That has worked well but I’m now up to sky and trees and the pieces all look alike. I was lamenting this fact Sunday night as I sifted and dug through hundreds of pieces that are devoid of any defining characteristics.
Scout isn’t permitted on the dining room table so he was blissfully unaware there was a project underway until he noticed this weekend. Now he can’t unsee it and refuses to leave it alone.
He hopped up on a chair and began carefully and oh so gently moving pieces around. He wasn’t sure what was happening but finding 500 small cardboard pieces at his disposal was awfully handy for an idle little boy who only has dozens of store bought cat toys to amuse him.
He normally is forced to play with old bottle caps and wadded up papers he fishes out of a trash can. This was a delightful change of plans, he seemed to say, as he gently pushed three sky pieces to the floor below.
Isn’t this a great analagy for life?
I mean, you’re walking around life with a box full of small problems that you’re doing your best to fix and puzzles you’re trying to solve. Then someone else comes along and decides to offer unsolicited advice or blatantly meddle and you’re back to square one in the search for answers.
Sigh.
Such is life.
While I do my best to keep the cat away from the puzzle, I can’t resist asking a question. Do you have tips for assembling a puzzle like this? I would appreciate help before I descend into madness! .
Scout is in the midst of training me for a new bedtime routine. We are about five days in and I honestly am not sure this is going to work for me.
Here’s how it goes:
I get ready for bed and then he disappears. Then I spend the next fifteen to thirty minutes ransacking the house and shining a flashlight in hard to reach places while shaking a bag of treats.
He’s such a dark black that he’s invisible on a sunny day so hiding in plain view is his super power.
Eventually I start to question whether he accidentally slipped outside – even when I know for sure the door hasn’t been opened. Just when I’m about to collapse into full blown panic, he presents himself and looks at me as though he wonders if I am having a mental breakdown.
He seems quite pleased with himself and I can’t help but wonder how much longer this will go on. Of course, it will go on for as long as he says it will so I need to toughen up!
Scout is an only child and accustomed to a certain quality of life.
It had been a while since he was last left alone to fend for himself. And when I say “alone to fend for himself,” I mean with my parents to feed, entertain and do his bidding for him.
He was thrilled to see me come home and more or less unceremoniously dismissed my folks after they had helped me carry in my bags.
Since then, he has monitored my every move, following me around the house but sitting at a distance – not too appear overly interested, of course!
Poor little cat. He’s a sweet boy but disruptions to his happy life are not at all welcome. I wish I could take him with me but he is not the travel cat I had hoped he would be. And, much to his dismay, I cannot stay home with him all the time. It’s a big world out there just waiting to be explored. I must go!!