Afoot with Peekay
Peekay, my orange Bengal/tabby cat, is due for his annual checkup and shots. It’s an excursion I’m not looking forward to as he hates riding in the car and because he has outgrown his initial mesh cat carrier. I’ve ordered a larger, hard-sided carrier, but it requires some assembly and patience I don’t have for dealing with the bag of screws and detached door that came with it. In other words, it is a task I keep putting off, which means I keep putting off making an appointment with 4 Paws Veterinary Clinic just down the hill.
In the meantime, I will take Peekay unleashed on his early morning walk and explore the territory that he and I know well along the edge of our boundary with Deer Creek woods. We share a love of the quietude while neighbors are still dozing. It is the magic hour before the school bus lumbers up our road, when birds soar high in the pines and firs, and tiny winged bugs only Peekay can see at ground level lead to sporadic leaps without warning as he tries to catch them in his paws.
We are the only ones out and about at this early dawn hour and once released from the house, I let him lead the way. In an explosion of joy and energy, he races down our back slope toward the edge of the woods below, stopping only to look back and make sure I’m following him. Trekking poles in hands, I’m never far away. While he digs holes in soft earth, I bend low and collect acorns under a giant oak tree and stuff them in my pockets. Thirty minutes later when we’ve circled the yard and made our way to the meditation pathway on the other side of the house, I leave the acorns for the squirrels and deer to munch or store away for the winter.
As dawn light reaches the ground, each tree stump along our walk is climbed and investigated. Enormous rocks here and there tell a story with markings that look like they were etched by the indigenous tribe that were once caretakers of this land. A favorite destination is a pile of felled logs piled up along the edge of our neighbor’s backyard. Next to the two of us, they are gimongous in size, once reaching heights that squirrels scale and Peekay imagines he might someday as well. Along our meditation sculpture garden, there is a stop next to a sculpture called “Running Man” that holds a red ornament from the past Christmas season. Clearly, this cat appreciates art as Kit and I do.
Peekay is especially fascinated with creatures that slither and hop about in my gardens. Just as 7 a.m. alerts him that it is time for our morning walks, he knows that 7 p.m. is when his little friend Froggie appears on a ledge outside our living room window or on the side of a giant green ceramic pot. There it is rewarded with mosquitoes and bugs attracted to three strings of white lights that make the window look magical at night. Stretched out on the end of a library table with his front paws hanging over the side, Peekay gets as close to Froggie as he can and wonders why he can’t just reach through the glass and make contact with this creature that looks a lot like ET.
Yesterday I discovered a Praying Mantis sitting on the roof of Peekay’s Catio. After moving it to a nearby potted plant, the two spent the next hour staring at each other at a safe distance. As I feel cool temperatures replacing the heat of early August, Peekay and I will make more discoveries on morning nature walks, and I will continue to keep my balance with the help of these quiet moments before the noise of the day sets in.
