Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

I'm not sure how old I was when I first read Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". I had certainly read quite a few of his poems, but this one did not leave me with a warm happy feeling. It left me with a feeling of dread, as though the gentleman who lived in the village may have been not quite all that he seemed to the village folk. The first time I read it, I got a chill from the reflected snow that wrapped my thoughts. I felt that it was not promises that kept the young man from entering the snowy woods, but fear. Was Washington Irving's Headless Horseman perhaps lurking deep within the cold shadows? Was the young man afraid that some nameless monster could be hiding behind the false prettiness of the wood? Had he just finished reading Mary Shelley's Gothic horror, "Frankenstein"?

I regret to tell you that this very poem gave me a fear of the dark. I would hurry to my bed and pull the covers over my head and sleep that way all night. My parents worried that I would deprive my brain of oxygen sleeping in this cocooned way and once even took all my blankets and the pillow from the room to try to break me of the habit. I thought them most cruel for this act...I don't think they acted out of cruelty but out of desperation. I still think back on that night and wonder how I managed to get through it without having a panic attack. Ever after that, I always lay awake until everyone else had gone to bed, then feeling safe at last, would haul the blankets over my head and sleep peacefully.

I outgrew the fear of the dark while in my room, but the fear of the darkling shadows outside still hold me in a cold grip. Our home is surrounded by woods and at times they lay deep in snowy shadows. I avoid them at night. Just after we first moved here, it was getting dark and I had taken Mindy, our blind dog, out for her last romp of the day. She and her cats had wandered down to the wood line and I stood under the security light (I didn't name it that, the power company did) and watched them. Suddenly I saw the cats stop and sniff the air, noses pointed up, then Mindy did the same thing. As one, the dog and the five cats turned and started to RUN towards the house. My mind froze momentarily and then when it came back to me, I saw all the monsters that could possibly inhabit the imagination lurking in the wood in front of me. I turned and ran like hell (in fact got up a pretty good speed for someone who walks with a cane) and the cats and the dog passed me. I refused to turn around and look behind me. My breath was coming in gasps as my feet made purchase on the porch steps and I ran straight into Mac's arms.

His face was perplexed and all I could do was start laughing. I was so glad to be the winner in this weird game of "ally ally oxenfree" that all I could do was grasp Mac's shirt front and laugh hysterically...I think I may have been crying, as well. What had the cats and the dog sensed in the woods? Coyotes probably...perfectly natural...no wraiths floated out to grab at my running feet, no monsters emerged from a dark lair. I'll never find out, either. I don't get far from the porch at night. Any Dog Walking is done by Mac. He's not afraid of anything.



Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Mindy vs the Mob

I love dogs...I have loved them for as long as I can remember. I love cats. (I'm sure that came as a huge shock to everybody). I have had the world's greatest dogs in my life and when I get to heaven (yeah, I'm sure) they're all going to be waiting for me. I'm not so sure about all the cats I've loved, cats wait for no one. If you want to tag along with them on their rambles then , you'd best hurry. Right now the only dog I have is our Mindy Lou. Mindy is one of those "not sure who her mama was, and her daddy was a traveling man" dogs. What kind is she? She's a dog. Nuff said. She's black. She has long ears, one stands up, the other flops down. She grins. Going on ten years old, her muzzle is white with age and she shows signs of laziness these days. She gets us up each morning so she can be let out to walk around the property and see what strange creatures have been out during the night, nose to the ground and at a fast clip, when suddenly....that's enough of that. (Now, I may have failed to mention that our Mindy is blind. I had her spayed when she was a puppy and she had a stroke during the surgery which rendered her sightless.) Her eyes may be blind, but her nose has 20/20 vision. She can find her way with that nose like no body's business. One other odd thing about her is that cats love her. ALL
cats. Love her. LOVE HER...When we moved here we brought our cats with us, the cats that she knew and knew and loved her and thought not a thing about it. There were two cats who had apparently lived here before we came along, and were they afraid of Mindy? Oh, no, not a bit of it. After we had been here a while I noticed that the prior owner cats we now called Wonky and CC, were following her. They were closely following her, and every so often one of them would rub against her and throw himself down in front of her. Strange behaviour for a cat, you might say. But it is exactly what my indoor cats do. They follow her, they "hug" her for wont of a better word. When they are wrapping themselves around her, purring loudly, it's all I can say, they are hugging her. Whenever she is out going walk about, she always has at least one, usually two and at times five or six, cats with her. She is greeted by Pinky Lee (he's white with black spots and the pinkest nose you've ever seen.) Then Wonky (his ears are deformed) and CC (he's a Maine Coon Cat) approach her and begin the ritual. Purr hug, purr hug, purr hug...and escort her to the yard. When she gets into the yard, the rest of the mob run to meet her. The kittens, George, Ociecat, and Barney lead the pack, with Stranger bringing up the rear. Now Stranger is one of the newer ones who showed up for supper one night and forgot his way home. (I have several who have that claim to fame.) This is the one cat that Mindy could lose her temper with. He is a stalker. And he is annoying. Mindy Lou can not take a step without his escort. He runs ahead of her to wait for her. If she changes course, he changes course. Mindy has put in for an OOP (Order of Protection) but like most men, he walks right through it. I have stamped my foot at him, clapped my hands at him, everything short of throwing things at him (which I refuse to do...maybe I should turn the hose on him.) Cries of "Hey CAT LEAVE THE DOG ALONE!" can be heard nearly every evening. You know, I would have thought this was just a fluke, but last week, Peanutbutter brought home a guest for dinner when she returned from one of her trips...she brought with her a lovely grey wonky earred Maine Coon. At first, when I saw this gray fur ball wrapped around Mindy Lou, I thought it was OUR Wonky...then I noticed only one ear is deformed, and his coat is a darker gray than our own Wonk. You know, I can almost hear the conversation between Peanutbutter and the new cat..."don't mind the big black cat, she's had an identity crisis ever since she lost her eyesight. She thinks she's a dog. Yeah, she's blind, we're her eyes."