Image courtesy of Andrea Lightfoot
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I walk down a sidewalk past many stores not far from my home. The air feels cool against me as it blows gently in a breeze. Clearing the stores I come to a reservation I have been to a thousand times. The surroundings all around me are spectacular as I walk through a cleared path in the woods.
Suddenly I hear footsteps come up behind me making my heart jump. Turning around I see no one there. It is only my mind running wild.
The footsteps sound again. I ignore them and go on my way. They speed up – almost running at me. I start to panic and begin to run away faster and faster. My heart pounds harder and harder inside me. My chest hurts as I try desperately to calm down.
I can tell that whoever is chasing me is gaining on me. I feel finger tips touch my right shoulder. My panic becomes worse. All I can do is run faster. Still someone is gaining on me.
The fingers touch my shoulder a second time. I scream out loud just as I wake up. I sit up in my bed to see Sly come walking into my room. All this time it my cat is the culprit who was scaring me while I dreamed. My cat, Sly!
Well one thing is for sure, he will not be staying in my room for long, I tell myself as he jumps onto my bed, as Sly walks toward me bobbing up and down because my legs are in his way. I reach out my hand and pet my cat on the head several times before taking him in my arms. With my left hand I hold him against me while use my right hand to grab my bed covers, to pull them off me so I can climb out of bed. And then I walk downstairs with Sly in my arms.
Soon I head back upstairs after seeing him happily playing with a plastic glitter ball. Batting at it first with his left paw then his right. He chases it all over the living room, managing to stay clear of a glass stand between two chairs. Sly remains occupied as I head back upstairs to my room. I close my bedroom door firmly and climb back into bed. I lay there; sure Sly would not dare come back in.
Sure enough my cat does re-enter my room after several minutes and I once more climb out of bed to carry Sly back downstairs. Nearly fifteen minutes pass and Sly does not return so I let my eyelids fall and I drift back to sleep.
Sly runs yo to the top of the stairs and sits for a moment, cleaning himself before heading back to the young girl’s room. Stopping at the crack between the door itself and the wall, Sly starts to pick his way in using his claws. Crouching down he pries at the door over and over until it finally squeaks open. This does not wake the girl remains asleep.
Sly enters the room at a slow pace then races under the daybed positioned against a wall under a set of twin windows. Under the bed Sly races around, poking his head out on all sides of the bed every once in a while hoping to find something lying around to play with.
Just as Sly is about to leave the girl’s room, he takes a shoelace lying under the girl’s desk and hooks it with the claws of one paw to maneuver it like a snake. A chase beings! Predator verse prey; Sly verse the shoelace.
Scooting across the floor, Sly continues to bat it around as he races to keep up with the shoelace snaking its way across the girl’s bedroom. Then Suddenly Sly releases the shoelace and dives under the daybed. Seconds later his head pokes out looking for the shoelace. When he sees it Sly leaps out from under the bed contemplates his aim before making his next move but just as he is about to scoot out from under the daybed he freezes in place.
A few moments later he slowly moves out from under the daybed but as he reaches the halfway point, Sly flops right back down on his stomach. Reaching a paw out, he grabs the shoestring. Then the cat snags it with his claws so he can bring the shoelace to his mouth to chew on. When Sly is done he drops the shoelace to the fall before abandoning it on the floor. Afterwards, he turns around and jumps on top of the daybed, flops down on his side and falls asleep.
Nighttime Break in & Sly’s Cat Game in a Girl’s Room
