Cat Therapist
So many thoughts too little time! I have no idea what is going to transpire after my brain catches up with itself and processes all of the things I am reading, watching, connecting, feeling, expressing, etc… I will wait it out and go with the flow. I am trying to stop adding senseless pressure and stress upon myself. It is kind of working. While my mind has been venturing off into the realities of each day, and spinning back to my make-believe world I decided I am feeling impetuous!
I have no idea what or where my impetuous self is directing its passions toward. (Entomology for passion.)
I will say that I have been thinking of my cat a lot lately. If you are new here and have not met my cat, let me introduce you. His name is Mr. Nathaniel Pawthorne. I call him Nathaniel, Mr. Cat, Cat, Hey Cat, Kitty Kitty Meow Meow Cat, DogCat, Hey, and Soft-Paw-Snooty-Tail-Talk-Too-Much-Cat. Ok, that last one I do not say at all. Here is the story of his arrival Mr. Nathaniel Pawthorn. He can be kind of a spaz.
Here are my spazzy detailed observations I have gathered while he has been here.
He talks a lot. He walks the perimeter of the house meowing when it is bedtime to remind us that indeed it is time to go to bed. If we are past bedtime, he starts “meow howling” at us. (I think he is yelling.) He checks on the kids to make sure they are in bed. He is obsessive about the kids toothbrushes. He has to walk near them and inspect them for some reason. :-/ He meows and howls if the lights are not turned off when the kids are in bed. He meows (howls) if we look at him. He plays hide and seek. He chases his tails. He chases us. He comes into a room from just waking up and falls on his side as if he has been working hard all day long.
He checks on us all the time.
He is an emotional eater. He dips his paw into his water before drinking from his bowl every time. I have caught him drinking from the toilet on several occasions. He doesn’t care for any type of cat treat. The poor fella knows something is going on, but does not know what. I keep trying to explain to him that we are moving, but he seems too interested in staring at the lizards outside acting as if he is going to attack them through the window, but only flits his tail about and says, “Meow, meow, mmmeeeooowww!”
He has OCD cleaning habits if he feels nervous.
The last couple of weeks he has been nervous because I am changing things around and packing things up. He has always walked the perimeter of the house like a watchdog, but now he seems to be doing it more often. He keeps meowing at us too… like he is angry, or asking ”What are you doing?!” I wish I could help him, but he is my therapist so I really need him to step up and take care of my needs.
Oh, I am kidding.
He is quite the therapy cat though and has been. It seems like he was trained to work with autistics - I know he wasn’t. However, I knew that he belonged with us the second I saw him and then, held him. He had been in a foster home with his brothers and several dogs. I am not sure what the foster care person was like, but she seemed to care about him an awful lot and that made me feel good about him being with us.
He has always been a calm cat.
He has patience that is mindboggling to me. I have never had a cat put up with all that he does. He will lay right in the middle of the living room while the kids are running, being loud, pretending to fly, jumping, flipping, pouncing, spinning, whatever, he just lays there. He has to be involved in everything. He does take his “cat alone time,” but he spends a large portion of his day interacting in his way when we are doing school, playing, or hanging out.
None of my other cats were like this.
The major thing that I find so interesting about Nathaniel is that since he got here whenever Daniel would have a meltdown the cat would come and get right in the middle of what was going on. It does not matter if Daniel is being aggressive or not the cat comes next to me and starts rubbing himself on Daniel or me. The cat has helped snap Daniel out of some meltdowns because I tell him, “Look the cat is worried about you.” or “Daniel you have to stop you may hurt the cat.” He does not want to hurt the cat. It has been beneficial at times giving Daniel another focus to direct his attentions on.
If I am crying, or Ariel or Joshua have a hard time here comes Nathaniel.
He does not like it when the kids are arguing and he comes running into the room and starts head butting, rubbing his body on them, and purring. He will come and give kitty kisses, smelling my face or the kids face to make sure we are ok after things happen. Maybe other cats do this, but I have never had one. He does not like to be held, but he loves to have his back and belly scratched. As well as his back-end patted like a baby. Strange cat.
Every morning he lies right outside my bedroom door.
He is waiting for me to wake up and give him his morning rubdown. Before I do anything else, I have to say, “Hello Cat” while giving a kitty massage. I admit that is therapy for me too. His purring, and soft fur calms me. He is gentle and sweet, but does not smother me. I do not like to be smothered with demanding affection from humans, or animals. We have a healthy boundary of affection toward each other and a mutual balance.
Why am I writing all of this?
I am worried about my kitty. I am worried that this move is going to affect his personality. I do not think it will, but he is such a sweetheart I do not want him to lose any of that because of fear, or kitty anxiety. I know that I may sound silly to some – it’s just a cat. Yes, I know I have heard that before. My other two cats that I had were affected by my moves so I do have reason to think about these things. I think it will be better if we move into a house straight away and he can adjust. The thoughts still lurk about in my mind.
I worry about the kids, and I worry about the cat.
I am trying to make it as smooth as possible… I am sure all will be fine. I needed to get this out so I wouldn’t loop about my cat. Ha ha ha I can be a little obsessive about him sometimes. I can also project feelings on him that in reality he is only staring thinking cat thoughts. Whatever those are, still it is fun to project silly thoughts and think my cat is a mastermind in the kitty world creating global schemes to take over the house, or the WORLD!
Right now he is hiding behind a gate thinking that I cannot see him.
I took a picture and his eyes are glowing! Awesome! Ok, I am finished I am going to go talk to my Cat therapist. Yes, I do lie on the couch while he sits and listens. He cannot write, but on many occasions he walks across the iPad, I am fairly certain that he is trying to type. He seems to like to use the keyboard on our other computers as well.
Picture Time!
I am sharing what the kids and have been doing this morning as well. Just because. Wii workouts baby! Hee hee Ariel read an entire Calvin and Hobbes cartoon book yesterday and is reading another one at the moment. She also started drawing “Dark Phoenix.” The boys do not know what to with themselves. Joshua decided to be a worm in a sleeping bag and Daniel created a Lego city.
Exciting stuff people! 
Oh! My mom is doing her first “Fantasy” type painting for my sister and I am showing it off. I LOVE the tree and the castle! It is not finished and she will yell at me for showing it. Oopsy! Ok, I am done. I went a little wild on the pictures… Oh, well.
