Blacky and I were in the 1 acre woods. We moved slowly through the old leaves. We were just looking. We had no plan. We were young and we were together and that was enough.
Blacky paused and looked down, then looked up at me. That was his way of saying look. So I looked. Down.
I lifted a leaf and there was a mother mouse and her two babies.
She looked both fierce and frightened. We studied the situation. If Blacky were the the usual type of cat would have pounced, but he wasn't so he didn't. And I being a farmer's daughter, should have wanted to kill the little family of rodents. But I didn't. I put the leaves back over the nest and in mutual understanding, we moved on.
Did I hear a faint sigh of relief? Who knows.