Lost and Found

Chapter 1

She lay in bed, blankets wrapped tightly around her, imagining that the soft, warm, comforting blankets were someone she cared about. She'd been alone for to long, she loved who she was, she loved her cat Myth, and she loved the life she was living. But she wanted more. There was a growing need inside her and she wondered what would happen if that need became too much.

Groaning she looked at her clock... 8:15 am. It was her day off of work, there was no real need for Lilly to get up, no major work needed to be done today. Just as she pulled the blankets over her head thinking about going back to sleep, her calico cat, Myth, jumped onto the bed with a loud, meow.

"Ugh, you want food don't you?" Lilly cooed at her cat, as she needed Lilly's leg. The cat meowed once more in reply.

"Okay, okay. Why don't you hunt or something?" Lilly asked.

Again the cat meowed. "I know, I have nothing to hunt for you here."

As Lilly got into her day clothes, she couldn't help but wonder what life would be like if she lived on a farm. She could finally have horses, maybe a goat, and she could let Myth have babies to help mice out a barn. It would be a big red barn, like you see in pictures.

Going down stairs with Myth hot on her tail, meowing the whole way, Lilly made a mental check list of the things she had to do today.

Clean chicken coop, clean cat box, run to town, go to the campus for some books, then come back home and study for her up coming exam.

Opening the screen porch and letting Myth out, Lilly grabbed a can of wet cat food and placed it on her bookshelf. Myth was a climbing cat, Lilly had ended up mostly converting the entire screen porch to a cat hideout. There were shelving units going all the way from the floor to the top corner. There was a pink scratching post/ cat condo, plenty of soft beds, and toys. Lilly had even started a cat nip plant in her garden.

After adding, check garden, to her todo list, Lilly went back inside, leaving the door open for Myth, and fixed herself an egg and toast. Landing in her brown leather livingroom chair, she caught the last of the weather, then changed the tv to her favorite show, Little House on the Praire. She loved the later episodes with Laura and Almanzo. Lilly couldn't help but wonder what it must be like to have a man care so deeply, so...whole heartedly for her. She envied Laura.

Myth meowed as she entered the house having finished her meal.

"I'm working on it," Lilly told the cat. Taking her meows as a cew it was time to get moving. Getting up, Lilly rinsed, and put her dishes in to the half empty dishwasher.

Taking a big deep breath she went back up to her room to change into her work clothes. Her torn up jeans, a short sleave shirt and her working cowgirl boots or her CGBs as she calls them. Grabbing her work gloves, radio, and scrap bucket she headed for the hen house.

"Hello my lovely's," She said as she arrived. She was greeted by a shy squak from the hens. "Its coop cleaning day today! Everybody out." Lilly loved talking to her chickens, even if they couldn't understand her it gave her a sense of peace having someone(s) to talk to. She grabbed the scrap bucket, opened the door to the fenced area and started calling them out, banging on the bucket. The second they heard her bang on the bucket and the food hit the floor, all 12 hens bolted for the door. except the two older hens still sitting in the nest boxes. Her two oldest hens she got from an old friend when she had to move. They might as well be pets, she though to herself, they don't lay eggs anymore and soon will come their time. Grabbing a handful of chicken feed she tossed that out to the other hens. Walking back into the coop she said, "Okay, you two can stay, I'll move you later."

***Two hours Later***

"Finally that's done!" Lilly said as she closed the coop up again. All the chickens were back in the fresh coop. Going back into the house she herd her phone ring on the kitchen counter. "Hello," Lilly said, picking up the phone without checking the caller ID.