A Year in the Life: Valentine's Day

My A Year in the Life journaling book has prompts in the back for holidays, in addition to the regular weekly prompts. I decided to do the Valentine’s Day one, which was to imagine that Puck had sprinkled fairy dust on me so that in the morning I would fall in love with the first thing I saw. Since my cat Phoebe is often nearby waiting for breakfast, I wrote a love letter to her. It wasn’t hard at all, because I am already quite in love with her.

Oh my darling, darling Phoebe —

how I love the way you regard me when I open my eyes, and the soft, self-satisfied “chirrup” you make when I say something to you in my “kitty voice.”How I love the way you roll onto your back as I approach, thrusting that protuberant belly into the air, the way you splay your paws so I can rub it like a lucky statue’s bald, bronze head, like a balloon I rub furiously enough to build up static to make it stick to me.

And oh, how you stick o me! The way your claws get snagged on my jeans, the couch beside me, my desk chair. How you frantically jerk them backwards, panicking, how you squawk and scold me when I try to gently remove them by pressing them backwards until they are unhooked. And then, how you glare at me, certain the whole situation was my fault, or perhaps Joker’s, if she was walking by.

Oh, Phoebe, how lovely that you never make mistakes, that your misery is never, no never of your own making. How I love to serve your every need–pets, food, laps, a warm body in bed. How can I help but love someone who knows so well how to love herself?

Your adoring admirer,

Lacey