Stepping On Stone

     I laid this wool rug from Dash and Albert in my entryway some years ago and another smaller one in the powder room around the corner. It is called Cat's Paw. I suppose it is evidence of my hubris that I think it should be named something else. When I walk on it, I imagine I am crossing a brook of clear, sibilant water and smooth stones downstream from the village bridge where trolls hide in the shadows; or that I am simply strolling along the shores of Lake Michigan on a quiet summer afternoon.

     I would, therefore, be more disposed to identifying my carpet as Brookstone, Shingle or even Troll Foil. On the other hand, if Dash and Albert are thinking Snow Leopard, that's a cat's paw I can live with.

     As I am so fond of wood, stone and tile, the only other carpet in my house is in the family room.

     While this one does not kindle my fancy as wildly as the carpet in the entryway, still, if I were the Person In Charge Of Labels at Home Depot where we bought it, I would have named it Pea Stone or Garden Path. Then again, I could imagine myself running with the reindeer in the far north, or hunting foxes and wolves in the mountains of Mongolia with a golden eagle on my arm. Yes, that carpet is definitely the color of  Reindeer and the Altai Peaks.

     Surely, I cannot be the only one who thinks about these things.

Tundra Nenets reindeer herders by Bryan and Cherry Alexander
Reindeer photo by Lawrence Hislop