picking beans

Early yesterday morning, I went out to the garden to pick beans. It was a nice cool morning and I enjoyed being outside.

The cats followed me out, and as I was squatting there in the garden, minding my own business, picking beans, one of the cats decided that he needed a change of view.

I was busily searching for beans to pick when I felt claws climbing up my back. I didn't want to jump up, because then those claws would dig in deeper, so I hunched lower, thinking if it was an easier climb, there wouldn't be a need for claws. And, I hoped that I was simply an obstacle, or something fun to climb across and then the cat would jump back down.

I was mistaken.

Once up the back, he laid down across my shoulders. He laid down, stuck his head in my ear, licked it and purred like a motorboat. I'm squatting there in the beans, wondering how in the world I got to be so blessed to have this cat on my back. I still thought about standing up and dumping the cat, but his claws were still too close to my flesh for me to want to do that.

So I kept on picking beans.

With a 10 lb. cat wrapped around my neck. Who was not napping, but kept licking my ear, eating my hair, playing with my hair, purring in my ear, patting the back of my neck, occasionally wrapping his leg around my neck, thoroughly enjoying himself.

By now, I needed to move down the row, so I carefully straightened my back, hoping he'd take the hint and jump off.

He didn't, he just wrapped himself more tightly around the neck.

So, I reached up and dislodged him. He jumped down--without using the claws and decided to just roll in the dirt, quite proud of himself.

I finished picking beans without any further mishaps, instead of climbing back up my body, he decided it was more fun to hide in the beans and scare me.

Stupid cat.