R. L. LaFevers

Our cat slept in our bed last night for the first time in about twenty years. Up until that point, I had slept with a cat for nearly all my life. But then we had babies and kids and they took up room on the bed and sleep became oh-so-precious that knitting cats or felines who chose to nurse on one's ear at 3:00 a.m. and cost us precious sleep were just too big a liability. But last night we just thought, she's getting old, we're caught up on our sleep, what the heck.

I have to say, I had forgotten how lovely the feel of that warm little cat body pressed against your leg was, that magical feeling of waking and realizing she was still on the bed, all cozily asleep next to you. I love that a lack of sleep is no longer such a huge factor in my life that I can't make room for the cat.

And actually, I think that will make a nice theme for 2010. Find more time to simply enjoy holding the cat on my lap and letting my mind wander.