"Every feline is a masterpiece"

 As she sat facing the artist, her back to the panoramic view outside the window,  she could feel the mist gathering behind her, shrouding the tall cypresses, which encircled the lake...in her mind's eye, she could still see the path, leading to the bridge, and she itched to bounce off  the chair and flee. "Take the adventure, heed the call, ere the irrevocable moment passes," hadn't she heard the artist read it out aloud to her from his favourite book, in a billowing voice?  Yet, today, he had begged her to muzzle her instincts, and stay still, until he was done with, what he considered to be, his chef-dœuvre.

The artist had been kind and loving. He had brought her home, one stormy night. A stray like her, drenched, hungry, and abandoned. He had fed her, offered her a warm place to sleep, and given her the space she needed. She came and went as she wished. And, she owed him this. In a moment of reciprocation, she tried to calm herself, focus the blue slit of her eyes on the long brush dripping with paint...it was impossible. 

She should not have succumbed to the temptation of  a paltry portion of stilton, and a few affectionate caresses...that was not a very feline behaviour on her part and she regretted it now...

 

The window groaned from the weight of the settling mist. And, a gentle touch of breeze on her whiskers, carrying the whiff of freedom, made her leap towards the door.  

"Mona Lisa!" The artist pleaded after her.

"Meow," she answered and bolted out.

The portrait could wait  for another day. 

 

(A belated Happy  International Cat's Day to us  ailurophiles ( cat people), which happened to be  the day before yesterday, on 8th of August!)