🖤 The Kitten in the Cottonwood
There was a pair of ravens that lived in the old ponderosa pine across the street from my home.
They had been there for years.
We watched one another.
I learned they are among the world’s greatest mimics.
They can imitate voices.
Birds.
Dogs.
Even something as ordinary as a toilet flushing.
I thought I understood them.
Until one afternoon, the mountain decided to teach me otherwise.
I was walking a familiar trail through the forest when I heard it.
A tiny kitten.
Soft.
Insistent.
“Meow.”
I stopped.
There it was again.
“Meow.”
My heart immediately began searching.
Surely someone had abandoned a kitten.
I wandered off the trail, calling softly, following the sound through the trees.
Again…
“Meow.”
Closer.
Or so I thought.
The sound drifted through the forest, always just ahead of me.
Finally, I stood still.
I stopped looking.
I simply listened.
Another little meow floated through the branches above.
I looked up.
There, perched comfortably in a Cottonwood, sat a raven.
He looked directly at me.
Tilted his head.
And…
“Meow.”
I laughed out loud.
I had spent the last several minutes being thoroughly outsmarted by a bird.
Ever since that day, I’ve wondered how many things in life I have mistaken simply because I never thought to look up.
The mountain has a way of reminding us that certainty is often our greatest distraction.
Sometimes what we’re searching for isn’t where we expect it to be.
Sometimes the lesson isn’t about the kitten at all.
Sometimes it’s about remembering that the world is far more creative than our assumptions allow.
And every now and then…
if you listen carefully…
a raven may still convince you there’s a kitten hiding somewhere in the trees.
From the Keeper
The mountain has taught me to trust my curiosity…
but not my conclusions.
Sometimes the greatest gift isn’t finding what we’re looking for.
It’s discovering that the world is even more interesting than we imagined.
Continue Wandering…
🐾 Wild Encounters
Every meeting is part of the conversation.
📖 Mountain Journal
More stories gathered along the trail.
🌿 Plants & Foraging
Learning to notice what the mountain quietly offers.
🤎 Meet the Keeper
The hands and heart behind these stories.
🏡 Welcome Home
Return to the trailhead.
5K High Altitude Apothecary 