X is for Xerophyte: or, the popularity contest between me and a cactus that I have no hope in hell of winning...

April A-Z Topic:  Xerophyte

Okay, this is becoming a little disconcerting. I've had at least fifteen visitors to my desk today, and not one of them came to talk about work. Nor did they come to pass the time with wee little Kellie here.

 No, they came to see Pedro, my xerophyte (or cactus, to the less pretentious).

I bought Pedro seven years ago from Ikea, thinking that I'd finally found the one plant I wouldn't be able to kill with my notorious bad gardening skills.  Honestly, I make plants cower in fear with the power of my black thumb.

He was an unassuming little thing back then, barely six inches tall.  Now days he's grown so much that he actually peers over the top of my cubicle and pricks unsuspecting loiterers.  What can I say, he's territorial.

But over the years he's somehow become more well known around the office than I am.  People come up to my desk to peer at him, stroke his prickles, ask with concern if I've watered him lately, and to coo at him like he's a freaking baby.  I've even had people make little paper sombrero's for him to wear.

This whole popularity competition is disturbing me a bit. How did my cactus get so popular? Is he bribing them with cookies? Maybe he's blackmailing them, yeah that must be it! God only knows what this lot get up to behind closed doors, and he's in a perfect position to tape it all and then use it against them.

He's a sneaky one, that Pedro.