I looked out the French doors to see Samantha Jo perched on the small round table in the yard. We caught eyes and she gave me a slow blink, beaconing me to come out and play, but play was not possible for me. After toting Samantha to the vet three times within ten days for a corneal ulcer (she’s now healed), the right side of my back under the ribs became sore. I quelled the pain with arnica gel and continued with usual activities over the following few days without too much discomfort—until trash pick-up day. As I pulled my large, full recycle bin to the curb, it went over a rock that caused the bin to teeter, pulling me along with it. I managed to stop the bin from toppling, and was relieved to have diverted a mess of recyclables all over the walkway.

But by 3:00 that Friday afternoon, I got up from my desk to make a cup of tea and a spasm fired through my back. After a few more painful spasms, I realized my back got the brunt of the recycle bin spill recovery. I took a prescription Motrin, put an icepack on my back, and kept on working. I managed to get through the weekend with minimal pain, but by Tuesday the spasms became frequent, and at times, debilitating.

Finally, by Saturday morning, I felt some relief. Icing, Motrin, and minimizing activity were helping. I started wearing a back brace that I’d worn years ago after a car accident and luckily, still had buried in my sock drawer. Thank you to friend Alisa for suggesting I wear a back brace. Its support of the inflamed muscles reduced pain, allowing easier mobility.

Feeling confident that I could walk the distance to Samantha, I opened the French doors and stepped onto the porch. After slowly walking towards my girl, I eased myself into the chair next to the table where Samantha remained perched. The yard was vibrant with lemon clovers. The yellow flowers looked happy with their petals wide open, facing the sun. The scene made me reflect on a time in childhood, when I would eat the stems of lemon clovers, which I knew as sour grass because of the taste. I picked one of the yellow flowers and taunted Samantha by grazing it across the table. She pawed at the stem as I pulled it away then brought it back to her face. She wacked at it a few times, but this wasn’t the same as chasing me around the yard. She quickly became uninterested.I picked another flower and wondered if I would still enjoy the sour taste after all these decades. Being a curious cat lady, I couldn’t just wonder. I bit the stem. The savory flavor took me back to being a kid again, hanging out in a neighborhood field with my brother Jeff, eating sour grass.

Samantha didn’t know what she was missing.In the photo below, I captured Lexington lounging in the lemon clovers. Now he lives on in my book, Two Cats, a Mermaid and the Disappearing Moon, which is now sold at Little Freebirds, a charming children’s boutique in Laguna Beach!