Of all the things I treasure, I treasure my family the most. That definition extends to the many cats who’ve inhabited the grounds outside our humble house over the past couple of years, as well as all the cats I’ve left behind (lookin’ at you, Baldy and Biggest and Fluffmaster Flex; rest in peace, Tubby Moo-Cow).

Mr. Oscar is one such cat. We found a new home for him a couple of summers ago, and he died the very next day. Poor little guy was full of worms, unbeknownst to us at the time. But what strikes me about this image is that he has a very particular treasure: a mouse. And what’s more, it’s the mouse that got away:

Literally – he thought he’d killed it, so he let it go. After playing dead for a moment, the mouse sprang up and made a mad dash into the grass, never to be seen or heard from again (at least, not by me).

The memory of the mouse that got away and the cat who tried to eat him are things I’ll treasure for a very long time indeed. What about you – what do you treasure?

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