cat theory

It can feel creepy riding on the rail sometimes. It could be a feeling of foreboding. Dread almost. Something isn’t quite right. Are you being watched? Maybe you’re imagining it.

Your horse sees him first. It’s that teenage barn cat, hanging on the fence like wadded-up laundry.

You blow it off, laugh at your horse for his foolishness. But he stays very alert and pushes a detour loop around the cat. Because he knows.

“I have noticed that what cats most appreciate in a human being is not the ability to produce food, which they take for granted, but his or her entertainment value.” -Anonymous Cat.

Your horse thinks you are the one who doesn’t get it. What part of predator don’t you humans understand?

Anna Blake, Infinity Farm.

(WordPress Photo Challenge is a weekly prompt to share a photo- I enjoy twisting these macro prompts to share our micro life here on the Colorado prairie. My photos are taken with my phone, on my farm. No psych, definitely not high tech.)

(Thanks, Megan. Hope you’re mending well.)

Available now: Stable Relation, a memoir of one woman’s spirited journey home, by way of the barn. It’s the story of the farm I grew up on, the farm I have now, and the horse who carried me in between. Available at all online book sellers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. To get updates and the inside story, sign up for my newsletter here: Prairie Moon News. Thank you.

“Creepy.”