Member-only story

Leo Has Left, Again

Lynda Wallis
5 min readSep 24, 2019

--

Leo snoozing on his favorite purple wicker chair, author photo

I thought I had latched the back screen door shut tight. I did not. I thought all three of my fur boys were safe inside for the night. They were not. Leo slupped out the back door, over the fence and was gone. I knew instantly, as I’ve known the two other times when he disappeared, that he was gone.

Leo had been back for 26 days.

Yesterday, the day he exited in the dark.

I had spent the entire day working on a research and writing project while camped out in the backyard. Leo spend 90% of the day curled up hard against my side, on my lap, at my feet or very close, napping in the sun on his old purple wicker chair.

I’ve been watching him like a hawk the past 26 days. He has become older, and more tired. He sleeps more now than he ever has. I’ve been in my new/old house for close to 5 months now. My backyard has been completely fenced in for about 2 months — it was a painful process. Loki and Darwin are both content and happy to hang out in the generous yard, watching butterflies, squirrels and hummingbirds, peeing in the grass and pooping in the gardens.

Leo, when let out back, would meander around the yard on the same circuit each time. He always would end up scaling the fence in one of two spots. From the top of the fence would survey the world beyond the fence and then jump down…

--

--

Lynda Wallis
Lynda Wallis

Written by Lynda Wallis

Deeply rooted in the mid west, I write about little things — everything is a little thing-art, the creative process, the natural world, and love.

Responses (1)