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| Helping me prepare for a presentation last year. |
One of the volunteers at my workplace wrote a great story
about his recent volunteer experience, and it made me realize how much I’ve
been neglecting my own blog! I love my job and helping animals in various ways
at work, but sometimes I overlook the little experiences that I can write about
in my personal “animal life” that captures the very reason why I devote the
majority of my professional and volunteer life to helping animals who aren’t as
fortunate as those in loving homes (yet!).
Just as I sat down and started writing this, Cleo (one of my
two cats) got in my lap between me and my laptop and forced me to take an early
break while she made biscuits. Now she’s just sitting up against my side,
content while I type. I love the little funny, cute moments every day like this
that make me stop and smile. I definitely won’t be allowed to forget to spend
time with either of my cats each day, because I wouldn’t want to but also
because they wouldn’t dare let me! Let me take you through a typical day in my life
with two cats (my boyfriend is pretty darn great too, but unfortunately for
him, my blog isn’t about boyfriends):
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| You'd believe how beautiful her eyes are by her photos... |
When my alarm goes off in the morning, I tend to snooze a
couple times before I actually get up. But it’s easy not to sleep through the
snoozes, because as soon as the first alarm goes off, Cleo is chirping at me
and takes her position on my chest laying facing me until I pet her for a bit
and then get up. If I’m too sleepy and don’t pet her quickly enough, she head
butts my hands and pets herself until I get the point. I am then followed to
the bathroom where I start getting ready for the day, and she stays by my side
during my whole morning routine (we have it all down to a science without
realizing it). She even lays in front of the tub while I shower, which I’m
pretty sure isn’t typical of cat behavior. Stormy stays sitting close by, staring at me with her big
green eyes and using her loud raspy meow to get my attention, making sure that I
don’t forget to feed them while I am getting my own lunch ready for the day. Once I start making my lunch, Cleo takes
her cue and jumps up on the table by the window and sits patiently waiting for
me to open the blinds so she can assess the morning happenings in our back
yard. When I leave to go to work, I can usually look up as I drive away and watch
her seeing me off for the day. I’m so used to my morning cat routine that
sometimes I forget how cute it really is, but I definitely get a few smiles in
from them before going to work.
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| "I can do that, too!" |
When I come home from work (or from anywhere, really), I
have to open the door slowly because Cleo is always standing with her nose in
the opening, and Stormy waits patiently a few feet back. I tell them to get
back, which they do, and as I put my things down and go get changed or whatever
is I need to do at that point, Cleo is right at my side chirping, fluttering
her tail and head butting my leg to let me know she’s glad I’m home again. I
pet her for a bit, and then she usually goes and finds a comfy spot to lay
nearby. Then Stormy will come sit next to me and have her turn for pets. She
has the biggest purr—we decided her middle name is Cricket early on, because
that’s exactly what she sounds like when she purrs—and I always say she’s the
easiest pet ever to please because she will start purring loudly just by
talking to her. Obviously she gets more attention than just talking, but it
never gets old laughing at the tiniest things that will make her purr up a
storm. At night when I go to bed, Cleo will come lay with me until my human
half comes to bed, then she either lays at the foot of the bed or in her chair
in the bedroom for the night (until it's playtime, of course).
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| Example of the "aren't I so cute?" pose. |
On my evenings or days when I do little projects around the
house or my cleaning, Cleo is right there by my side waiting to see what we’re
about to do. She loves changing the sheets, which makes it much less awful for
me. She can sense when I start to change them and darts into the room and up
onto the bed as if it’s a game. I always get a good laugh at how much fun she
always thinks it is, and it never gets old. When I work on projects in the
floor, she will usually lay on top of whatever I’m trying to work with, roll
over and look up at me with those “aren’t I soooo cute?” eyes. Wrapping
presents is always fun for this scenario, and it also makes for a good photo
op. And I won’t even go into her
obsession with our electronics, because that could encompass an entire blog in
itself!
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| Her awkwardness in full action. (This is her relaxing.) |
Stormy again usually watches from afar—she’s slowly building
up her confidence level since she literally meowed at our doorstop almost two
years ago. But she watches intently and has learned a lot about being a cat
from watching Cleo. It’s funny to see her do cat things now that Cleo doesn’t,
since she is truly a “copy cat” (I never completely understood that saying
until we got Stormy). Her favorite thing to do is sit and look out the window.
(Our friends who live next door say they see her throughout the day watching
them from the window!) Yesterday, we were watching tv and all of a sudden she
was looking out the window and making these funny quick meows that caught our
attention, almost in the form of a cat-like bark. I looked out the window to
see what was going on, and there was a bird sitting outside the window grooming
on a power line close to the window. I guess she got so excited that she
started meowing at it! We were still talking about how cute it was today and
hoping she would do it again soon to relive the cuteness.
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| Never an empty box in this house! |
So… what’s my point in all this? Basically, I want us to
remember why we have pets in the first place and to stop and take in the small
things they do that make us smile each and every day—and consciously appreciate
them as valuable parts of our family lives. They aren’t just pets who are there
to look cute (though they are certainly pros at it)—they truly are our companions, and we are theirs. So next
time you get in a hurry or are just wiped out after work, stop, take a breather
and just sit with your pets for a few minutes. Chances are, they will do
something that’ll bring a smile to your face and make you forget that long day
at work or whatever else in occupying your thoughts at the time. I can almost
guarantee it.
My family lost one of our beloved pets this week, and as I
sat and thought about her passing, I started thinking about her long life and all
the joyful memories I had with her. She was a gorgeous girl who was as sweet as
her name, Sugar. I looked through some of my old photos to try and find one in
particular that I remember so well. I didn’t find it at the time, but I did find
some of her and her littermates as babies, who we raised from furballs that fit
in the palm of our hands. She was the last of them to make the journey to
Rainbow Bridge, so seeing them all together again in the photos was a special
moment. I even found a video of them as babies, and though it made me cry
because I miss them all, I had the biggest smile through the tears. Even though
they were small versions of themselves, they looked just the same. Their distinct personalities that we grew to know so well
shined through, again even though they were still babies. Sometimes we only
have a brief time together with our furry loved ones, and sometimes they stay
around a bit longer in our lives. But in the scheme of it all, it really
doesn’t matter how long they’re here—what matters is the joy that they bring to
us while they are here, and we should take some time from our busy lives now
and again to really think about it…. and smile.
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