Kitten Hopper Finds a Fort

Kitten Hopper Finds a Home 

I recently finished a quilt -- and decided who it's going to (that's a secret to those in my family who might read this as it's going to be a surprise). I have it boxed up for a trip, and recently took it out to show someone who had come over to visit.

Well, after showing the friend I didn't wrap it back up and put it in the sealed box, and recently I walked into the back room to see this photo op -- my cat had found a way UNDER the paper and ONTO the blanket.

I find my cats like to lay on things -- sure, we all like comfortable spots, but they also like to be covered up with a view from their fortress. It reminds me of when I was a kid and we'd hide under the kitchen table after throwing a sheet over the top to make a "fort" or play "house".

There's something about finding your comfortable place. For me, I like my front porch during a lightning storm. Enclosed with windows, I feel safe from the storm while being able to watch the light show and hear the big thunder roll across the skies.

I'm getting ready to go on a long road trip alone -- to Oregon. I'm going out to get some of my Grandma's things from her estate, including her dining room set and my Grandpa's old secretary desk.

I find the prospect of a road trip exciting, especially because I find the road to be a good place to process things...but it's also a feeling of being "out there" on my own -- out of my comfort zone that is at some level exciting, but also a little scary.

While most of my brothers and sisters don't really care about having any of her stuff around them, I find the prospect of having some of Gram's things in my home comforting. Partly, because Gram's house was always a place of stability -- she never moved in my whole life while my family moved around a lot. I remember many summers eating at that table, and playing "office" at Grandpa's desk, making prank phone calls with the phone that sat on it, and playing "school" where I was the teacher to my little brother.

To have those things in my house will feel like a few things that belonged to her went on to be in another home to build new memories and celebrate old ones.

Someday I hope I'll have kids who can do the same thing I did, hopefully minus the prank phone calls.

"Is your refrigerator running? Better go and catch it!"