Forgotten

It just lay there. Abandoned. Forgotten. Alone. No one took any heed to it. No one saw it. No one picked it up. Until the cat came along.

The cat saw it from a distance, and lowered his front body, backside slightly up in the air. He inched a little bit closer, crawling silently over the dark wooden floor. His eyes grew wide and the pupils opened up, replacing the piercing green with black. The ears pointed rigidly forward, moving ever so slightly towards surrounding sounds. The glorious whiskers expanded to the max while the head stayed as low as it could, almost resting on the floor.

The tail swished from left to right, going quicker and quicker with every turn, sometimes the whole tail, often only the tip. Then, suddenly, the cat’s butt began to wiggle. It stopped wiggling for a short moment before starting up again, followed by a sudden powerful jump which placed him right in front of the object.

The cat’s paw struck out, perfectly aimed to strike the hairpin. In a flash his other paw moved, pushing it back before being caught again. The pin was pushed from side to side, lightning fast, sometimes even bitten, thrown upwards, dropped down, picked up, walked with and dropped again.  

The attack lasted only moments, moments which seemed like a lifetime. The cat had almost tired of the game when suddenly the hairpin stopped moving. It got stuck between the floorboards. The cat tried to pry it loose, but after several attempts, even using his sharp claws, he gave up. There was a couch and a lap waiting for him after all. The hairpin just lay there, abandoned, forgotten, alone.