Pets

When you are battling an illness sometimes humans make things worse – giving out too many suggestions, criticizing your prior bad habits, inserting politics, ignoring your feelings; etc.  Pets, on the other hand, are there to give you constant love and attention; whether you like it or not.   Sometimes, however, they are a pain in the ass.  When I had my spleen taken out in 1987 microsurgery was a future thought, so I had a 12 inch abdominal incision closed up with wire, staples, sutures, and everything but bubble gum and bullshit.  I was in a huge amount of pain when my ride dropped me off at the apartment with no elevator.  After I crawled up the two flights of stairs I got through the door and immediately fell onto the bed.  At the same time my cat Chrismo and ferret Patrick were fighting and chasing each other through the bedroom.  While I’m lying on my back in agony, Patrick bites Chrismo and he flies through the air and pounces on my stomach.  I yelled so loud I burst a capillary in my eye.  When Diane came home from teaching and saw all the furniture turned over her first thought was, “we probably should get a puppy to even things out.”  Go big or go home; soon we had 3 boys, a ferret, a sheltie, cockatiel, and 9 cats.  In 2004 one of the cats, Claddy, began sitting on me and pumping my stomach with her paws every morning.  Even though it was a little annoying, I never gave it any thought until my oncologist shared the imaging report showing I was loaded with lymphoma tumors.  Little did I know, I had my own personal CAT scanner.  After this the boys called her Nurse Claddy, but in reality she should have been called Nurse Kervorkian after reading  that tigers push on their prey’s stomachs looking for weak spots to tear open.  Overtime the pet inventory pared down to two older cats, Pooka and Rocky, so rather than take a breather Diane thought it would be wise to get two new cats to keep the old cats company; kinda like a pet nursing home.  So, we found a Maine coon cat breeder in Kentucky, Laura MacClan, and adopted two kittens.  Before they arrived I was told I needed a CAR-T transplant and would be hospitalized for a month.  Diane and I thought about all the extra stuff going on about us and began having doubts about adding two new kittens to the mix.  We thought it would be better to back out, so Diane called Laura to let her know the bad news.  Laura understood completely and told us she would return the deposit with no issues.  She did offer to keep them until I recovered and in her wisdom told Diane, “it doesn’t matter how old they are when they arrive, they will add life to your house which you definitely need right now.”  I think about that daily now each morning around 4:30 AM when food dishes start getting tipped over and Jameson opens up the plantation shutters to let the light in.  Laura is right, pets bring life and comfort into your house which is important when you are struggling with an illness and especially if you’re lonely.  Word to the wise, one cat is fine; 9 is psychotic.  Meow.