An Enchanted Place

Of Cats and Dreams and Tickles

Wait for it…

That’s it. Slowly does it. Stay low and slow and careful, and-

Quick! Pounce – claws out, teeth ready.

Gotcha.

…and let it go. Pounce again. Don’t let it get away-

Drat.

Where’d it go?

Mmm, tickles. Tickles are a good distraction. Right there. Head, chin, ears… Oh yes. Bliss. Mmm, keep going, more.

That’s enough of that. There’s a perfect warm patch of sunlight to curl up in.

It’s time to sleep now.

*

Karla stretched, her eyes closed and sleep still clinging as she enjoyed the warmth spilling over her body. Luckily, only her dignity was injured when she toppled off the bed to the floor.

Her startled squawk mingled with her husband’s laughter as his tousled head appeared above her.

“What the…? Why am I sleeping at the bottom of the bed?”

Evan reached out a hand to help her up, his dark eyes alight with amusement. “Come back to bed and I’ll tell you all about it.”

*

“So let me get this right, you woke up to me pouncing on your feet.”

“Um hmm. They were sticking out from under the duvet. You kept trying to bite my toes.”

“And you stroked my hair to get me to stop.”

“You were acting kind of cat-like. Everyone knows cats like to be stroked.” He grinned. “You seemed to particularly like having your ears tickled.”

“And then I took myself down to the bottom corner of the bed, curled into a ball, and fell asleep.”

“Right in the sunshine.”

Karla shook her head, bemused. “And you didn’t think there was anything odd about this?”

“I figured you were dreaming.” He shrugged, giving her a slightly chagrined smile. “It was cute.”

She rolled her eyes as she snuggled into his side. A dream? She didn’t remember having one, but then, she also didn’t remember doing anything he’d said. If she didn’t know better she’d have said he’d made the whole thing up.

His foot was, as usual, poking out from under the duvet. There were red marks that looked embarrassingly like tooth marks.

The sunlight glinted off the eyes of the statue of Bast added only yesterday to a shelf nearby, and for a moment Karla was sure she could hear the faint sound of purring. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion, before she shook her head and rolled to face away from the statue. She was being ridiculous. There was no way the cat goddess statue could possibly have had anything to do with it.

No way at all.

I’m currently missing my cat, Hex. I moved house just before lockdown into a strictly cat free zone. Hex has stayed with my sister who I was living with before. Until lockdown is over I can’t even visit with him, and, unlike my sister, he doesn’t really do video chatting!

Here are a few other pictures of him that were taken last year: