“Make the leaves dance again”

Kent thinks that’s what our cats would be saying today if they could talk, and he’s probably right. We sort of inherited* a yard care person from the previous owner and he came yesterday with his crew of two other guys to rake, mulch and fertilize the yard, front and back. We had a lot of leaves on the ground so the raking took quite a bit of effort plus at least one leaf blower (there may have been two, I just didn’t notice). 

All of that work meant the leaves were swirling and swirling around our back patio door, which is where the cats spend their time plotting the demise of all the birds, squirrels and bunnies in our yard. They were absolutely enthralled by the leaves, and kept running between the two windows that flank the fireplace, with stops at the patio door. In fact they wore themselves out and crashed hard for the night with us. That’s saying something when you have three nocturnal creatures living with you.

Today they’ve gone to the windows from time to time, and when the leaves don’t move (because they’re gone), it’s almost as though the cats sigh with disappointment. 

*I say we sort of inherited our lawn care guy because he stopped by last weekend to introduce himself and see if we were interested in using his services. Since one of the big reasons we bought this house was because of the amazing yard, and since we don’t own any yard tools at this point beyond a snow shovel and one rake, we were definitely interested. 

Don is probably in his 40s or 50s and is Romanian. He fled Romania during Ceaușescu’s reign and got to the U.S. with only the coat on his back. He’s a fairly recent citizen, within the last five years or so, and told Kent very seriously that he loves this country and thinks those who don’t like it should go someplace else. I think he’s earned the right to say that.