It’s Like Herding Cats

When I asked my photographer to come to the farm to get some pictures of the soap in real life settings, I never expected myself to take on a new role:  Cat Herder.  I mean, we’ve all heard the saying “It’s like herding cats”.  Little did I knew how accurate that was.

Upon arriving to the farm, where my brother now lives, Troy and I were chatting by our vehicles discussing the photo shoot when a tiny little gray kitten came out of the barn.  We were both “Ohhhhh, how cute”.  I immediately told Troy that this was a barn cat and they won’t bother us.  I proudly announced that barn cats are skiddish and are afraid of everything and we were so lucky to even get a glimpse.  My announcement was initially proven when we tried to pet him and he scurried away.  Troy and I laughed about the cute-ness of it all and then we got down to business.  That is until the kitties four sisters and parents arrived.  From there on out all I did was try to keep the kittens away from the photographer.  And the soap.  And his equipment.  What at first seemed “oh so cute”, turned into a photographer’s nightmare.

Who doesn’t love kittens?  We all do!  Yet, when you are trying to do a photo shoot and the kitties (with claws) are literally hanging on your screens, congregating in your photos, purposefully (?) annoying the photographer,  purposefully (?) going exactly where you told them NOT to go, and not taking any direction AT ALL, it turns into a circus really fast.  Therefore, I turned into a cat herder.  And it was a mess.  Every time I tried to put them back into the barn they found new ways to escape.  And every time I would pick one or two or all of them up and bring them as far away from the photo shoot as I could, they were back bugging the photographer before I could get back to him.  We finally gave in.  We let them sun themselves on the rocks.  We let them come into the photo shoot.  We let them hang on his equipment and on our pants.  We let them, be kittens.

Herding cats.  Looking back, I can laugh at the absurdity of it.  I can laugh at the fact that, hey, it’s a farm.  It’s what happens here.  And I can also bring it back to real life.  We ‘herd cats’ often in our life and often without even knowing it.  From our thoughts, to our children, to our life with teenagers, to our jobs, to our pets, to all of life’s nuances that we can’t control.  We herd cats all day long.  God love ‘em all for being independent and un-herd-able and difficult.  It makes for some really great memories.

So go out and be that cat that can’t be herded.  You won’t regret it.