Another Day

Feeling bored and just a little blah, I drove down the same familiar road on my way to work this morning. For those of you who live in my area, that's along a stretch of South River Road, not far from the Family Arena. On my right were thick trees and scrubby underbrush that hid a somewhat shrunken (we're in a major drought) Missouri River. On my left were more trees and underbrush screening a residential area.

The only things on my mind as I drove along were the ga-zillion other activities I'd rather be doing. Okay, so I was cranky.

In a heartbeat, a critter leapt from the cover of underbrush on my right, obviously intent on racing across the road. He/she was so close, I feared hitting him/her and jammed my foot on the brake to slow down.

My brain tumbled thoughts in this exact order:

A cat. A big cat. A BOBCAT!!!

A beautifully spotted bobcat, larger than your average housecat and fast as an Olympic runner, sprinted from one side of the road to the other. I slowed to a crawl and twisted my head around to watch until he disappeared.

With no chance for a camera shot, I hunted for a picture to give you an admittedly anti-climactic reenactment of what I saw.

 










Squint your eyes and imagine him/her not quite so long-legged and with much more distinct spots, running like his/her stubby little tail is on fire and you'll see exactly what I saw this morning.

I've seen a lot of creatures in the wild around here, but this one had to be the most awesome sighting of all.
Isn't it amazing how something like that can turn an attitude around? I felt excited and energized for the rest of the day. And here I am (ta-da!) writing about it instead of vegging out in front of the t.v.

How about you? Have you had any nifty little surprises lately that make you feel like you've just won a million bucks?