BETWEEN THE LINES: SEASON MEANS PLAY IN PETS, PLENTY OF FALLING LEAVES

Raking leaves as an adult isn't nearly as much fun as it was when I was a kid.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year because the weather turns cooler and the air is crisp.

But it's also the time of year that requires tremendous amounts of work if you have deciduous trees anywhere near your yard.

Try as I might, I just can't keep up with the leaves falling in my yard.

I have a small yard so it's not like I have a huge area to manage. But it seems that I have more leaves per square inch than half the other houses on my block.

I spent a good part of an afternoon raking leaves only to have them blow across the yard again later. I've tried mowing, but the leaves only seem to multiply.

It's a never-ending battle and I'm on the losing end.

Raking leaves as an adult isn't nearly as much fun as it was when I was a kid.

Our house in Scott City had more trees in the yard than any other around. And more trees means more leaves (nobody thought about the beauty of evergreens then) that needed raking. My brother and I were often assigned (almost always under protest) the task of raking the leaves from our yard down to the corner so we could burn them.

It was a back-breaking job that left you tired, cranky and smelling of smoke. It also provided fodder for a list of complaints we rattled off about the hard work we did around the house. Children have so little pull when it comes to division of chores. Often, they end up with the jobs that parents don't want. Raking leaves was one of them I'd rather not have been assigned.

Raking leaves is only fun if you can jump in the piles and scatter the leaves around. But adults can't do that when they are the ones who are supposed to be raking the leaves. If you were to ask any child about raking leaves, they'd likely answer that it's only fun if you get to jump in them too. It would be my answer too.

Even my cats have learned that playing in the leaves is fun. First of all, dry leaves crunch when you walk across them. And, most importantly, they blow in the wind which means you can chase after them. If you do happen to catch them or find them collected into a pile, then rolling around in them is necessary.

In addition to all the leaf pieces I tracked into the house after raking, I find even more from the cats. The cats come inside with leaf particles stuck to their tails, under their bellies and even on their whiskers. The leaves don't seem to bother them until I pull at the tuft of hair to remove it.

Maybe I should be less mindful of the leaves as well. They dress up the lawn just as nicely as they adorn my cats' fur.

Laura Johnston is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.