My lovely cat is a senior citizen. She doesn’t really like to play with her toys or chase things as much these days (she’s on anti-seizure meds that make her a little unsteady which I think have made her play less enjoyable for her) so she spends a lot of her time looking out/sleeping in front of windows. But, whenever she realizes I’m about to nap, she gets super excited, jumps on the bed, yowls until everything is juuuuuuuust right (her soft blanket on top of mine but perfectly flat etc) but once we’re both lying down, she starts purring the with the fury of a thousand rusty chainsaws, regardless of whether she’s getting skritched. More so if she can get one of my arms working as a pillow.
So, even while her former favourite activities are falling off, we’re both finding weird moments of happy while I try to avoid thinking about the inevitable. And there’s something just so wonderful about hearing how aggressively happy she is just to hang out nearby for an extended period of time.
Don’t really have a point but we woke up from a nap and I wanted to share.
One of the many reasons I don’t want to own a pet is saying goodbye. I hope you both get to enjoy each other’s company for a long time yet.
Having someone around that’s as close as a family member more than makes up for that.
The goodbye is painful, but the hello to a new kitten is equally sweet.
Personally, I didn’t find this to be true. But I think the lifetime spent before the goodbye was worth all of the pain, as awful as it is. The hello to a new kitten was sweet and helped me think less frequently about the pain, but it wasn’t nearly equal to the pain of losing the old one.
That said, the girl I lost was without a doubt my soul pet. We spent 20 years together and losing her tore a hole in both my heart and soul. And yet I wouldn’t give up a single day I had with her if it would lessen the pain I have felt over the last 7 months since losing her.
I adopted a sweet new kitten about 3 months in and I am so glad I did. She’s wonderful and I think there’s a chance I got lucky and will have two soul pets in my life. But the joy of meeting her and getting to build a new relationship only makes me think less frequently of the pain of my loss, not feel it any less.
In no way did I mean to insinuate that a new adoption dulls the pain. I agree there’s always room for more love in life; it’s the ultimate renewable resource.
My partner spent twenty years with her soul pet, and I was lucky enough to share fourteen of those years. He was such a part of our lives that five years later we still regularly accidentally call his little nephew, now the patron of the house, by his name.