Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The Cats Who’ve Come To Stay Chapter One

The first to come was a sleek black, well-defined young male when I was only 7 years of age. I met him while I was on the mountainside of the Rockies on a spring afternoon; picking wild flowers the small bluebells and the blue bachelor buttons were my favorites. I came especially that day to bury my treasures collected in my youth.
He sleekly walked to where I was sitting and came into view. As he approached the sun whisked off his shinny coat revealing the tips of silver from his head to his toes.
“I have been interested in watching you from the rock precipice that protrudes near the ridge of the mountain, up there,” he pointed. I’ve watched over you before and thought it was time to meet. My name is Shadow.” The Spirit of the Keanutes (pronounced as Kē-ăn-utes) whom had once inhabited the land had told him to come.


He was very curious what I was burying amidst the wild flowers that grew so tall. I told him, “I did not know how long I would be here and that I want to leave behind, in this land that I love the objects that I cherish most.” He felt interested as to what might take me from this land.

He could not find a way to ask. He said instead, “I and my ancestors have lived amidst the mountains for many generations--dating back to the time the Katz first befriended the Keanutes. I personally, am not acquainted with this strong force of life, once so prevalent in the mountains. It was my Great-Uncle Zeb that spoke of the experiences of the Katz and the Keanutes together over the many centuries.”

Shadow spoke with the ancient spirits, how exactly no one knows, but his great-uncle Zeb considered it to be powerful. Shadow continued, “The Katz and Keanutes had a strong connection with the mountains, and their love of them ran deep”.

The warmth of the sun and the dry smell of sage growing wild in the mountain meadows and the blue- blue sky with the white cumulus clouds above making forms to day-dream upon. These are the things I remember along with the lake, the long lake with the deep blue waters, and many an interesting cove for a secluded look at the lake, known today as Horsetooth Reservoir. You see it was the Keanutes that inhabited the land before the lake was formed.

Dams were built between the hogbacks of the mountains to hold the waters from the valley below. A total of three dams were built at the east of the large mountain river valley and one large dam at the north to close the exit of waters as they fed in from the river from that direction.

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