First Post

A red headed girl named Vegas - that is the charming, sleepy face above.  She came with the name Vegas, neither of us at the time had ever stepped foot in a casino, let alone Las Vegas.  Her brothers and sisters apparently were all named after the poker game. 

Tonight is a muggy, slow, drowsy summer night in Iowa.  I was getting lost in the TV, a re-run I had seen many times.  TV is a slow drip anesthetic, and one I use more often than I care to admit.  I turned to look at Vegas and there she sat staring out the window to the driveway.  She was waiting for Mama Kitty (the best cared for homeless cat you will ever meet).  Vegas was watching the driveway in the same way most people watch a tennis match, looking left, then right, then left again.  This lasted about five minutes.  I crawled over on the floor to sit and watch beside her.  As soon as I was next to her, Vegas smiled a big grin (she is dictating to me as I write that it was NOT a Cheshire Cat grin) and licked my face and proceeded to bring me a small stuffed reindeer.  Prancer I believe. 

I was pulled out of the self indulgent gravity of the recliner and re-run and into the big lion-shaped paws of Vegas.  It's the very smallest of moments that turn your life, ever so slightly, forward.