How lovely

I just had a delightful experience.

"And what" you might ask, "was that experience?" Or you might not ask, but I will tell you anyway.

First, though, I must inform you of a couple relevant circumstances.
1. The main "caretaker" (for lack of a better term) on campus has a wife and two daughters, all of whom live on campus. The daughters are named Luna and Lamara, and are (I believe) 9 and 8 years old, respectively.
2. A small orange kitty has recently been "adopted" by some students here on campus. It was in pretty poor shape, but has been showered with some care, and is now doing better and has become at least marginally tame.

This afternoon I was outside, sitting under our grape arbor, enjoying the cool breeze and warm sunshine, listening to some Celtic music, occasionally catching a whiff of the fragrance of dying roses, and reading about the history of Israel, when these two circumstances converged in a way that was simply marvelous.

The two girls had just gotten home from school (I greeted them) and immediately commenced to search for the small orange kitty (who someone decide to name "Francis"). The found him and proceeded to hold him (very badly), pass him back and forth, ask me to guard him while they got food for him, attempted to "force" him to eat, chased him as he ran away, and the continued to search for him and try to get him back until they had to leave for a meal. This may not seems like a delightful experience to you, but really it was. It was so similar to the dramas I've seen acted out with the kitties at camp, over and over. It just made me laugh and remember that kids are the same, wherever you are in the world. And come to think of it, kitties are pretty much the same too. :)