Taken By a Photograph

Daisy, circa 1995

This morning I went looking for a specific old photo of a friend, and so I made the mistake of wading through all my prehistoric photo albums, back from when you got prints of pictures and kept them in leather albums with pages covered in plastic. You know--back in the Dinosaur Age. That was one mistake I won't make again in a hurry. Everyone looked so young and beautiful and smooth. Lots of dead people were alive and smiling; in fact, almost everyone was smiling. My son was hugging me. My hair was long and lustrous and blonde, and then black, and then red, and then blonde again, and of course streaked and frosted and in a ponytail or braids, and I had bangs or I didn't, but it was definitely there, front and center. (I still have hair, but it's old too, so I keep it short and quiet.)

Daisy today, crankier.

Even just a few years ago, I looked younger. Oh right, just a few years ago I was younger. Oddly enough, the snapshot I found of my cat Daisy, who is now 18, as a teeny kitten, was striking in that she looks exactly the same today, only bigger. And yes, crankier. But still a beauty.

I hope I come back as a cat in my next life.