I have a small yard with a 6ft fence around it. I live with a 7 year old cat that I let out there because I have never seen her jump 6ft high. I am sure she could get over the fence in her younger years, but she is too big now so she has never tried.
I let her out this afternoon without thinking like I normally would. I had forgotten that my roommate had set up a workbench right next to the fence to make some cuts. The bench is 3ft high, an easy clearance for the cat. From there she could get on top of the fence and onto the other side, freedom.
When we first started living here she poked all around the fence to try to find a way out. It was never there and she could never find one if she looked until today. She gave up at it and that’s why I don’t mind letting her out. But she is so conditioned now to knowing that there is no way out of the backyard for her, that even when the opportunity presents itself she is blind to it.
Sort of makes me wonder how many realms in my life I am only conditioned to feel are dead ends when there could be an opening at any time.
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