And so this week’s moment of happiness despite the news.
This week, I’ve been cat-sitting my grandcat, Kubota, my son Andy’s cat. In the weirdest of ironies, Andy, and my son Christopher, Christopher’s wife Amber, my granddaughter Maya, and my daughter-by-proxy Rayne, are away on…a cruise to Alaska. They’re with my first husband, who is celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary with his 2nd wife, and they decided to bring a whole bunch of family with them.
What is it with cruises to Alaska?
I joked with one of my favorite Starbucks baristas that I should have been brought along on that celebration cruise, because my ex and his wife would never have gotten married if it wasn’t for me. Divorcing him, donchaknow.
But anyway. Besides cruises to Alaska, my life lately seems to be full of cats too. There was Cleo’s sudden death. Then the adoption of Poe. And now daily visits with Kubota. So my days and sometimes nights are filled currently with trying to pet Poe (still haven’t been able to, but she’s getting a lot better), yelling at her because she’s gotten comfortable enough to start doing naughty things, encouraging Oliver to teach Poe to be friendly AND good, and running to Andy’s house to feed Bota who initially yells at me because he’s starving, he thinks, and then sitting on the couch with him, listening to him purr. And wondering if my son would notice if I swapped Poe for Bota. Just kidding. Maybe.
But this Bota Boy is someone special. He oozes relaxation vibes. He has owl eyes and a tail that dances and a purr that rumbles his whole body. When I have to leave him, he stares at me, and I really wish I could just bring him home. But he’s not very happy around other cats, or so we were told by his previous owner.
But Kubota has done an amazing thing, though he probably isn’t aware of it. He’s forcing me to take a break every day. At home, I also pat one cat and listen to the purr, but it’s in between as I’m going from here to there, to the next client, the next class, the next whatever. But with Bota, I’m in someone else’s home, and I have to sit down to visit.
I’m visiting in chaos, the chaos that is a bachelor’s apartment. Holy moly. But it’s not my chaos. The only thing I have to do when I’m there is feed Bota and pet Bota and relax into the beat-up bachelor couch.
And it’s been wonderful. When I start to itch to clean that place (actually, to get a forklift, empty it all out, and start over), I just close my eyes. Then there’s only the warmth and vibration of a happy cat on my lap.
When Andy gets home, I may have to arrange a daily, or maybe weekly, Kubota Visit. When my son isn’t there. But I’m pretty sure that once the necessity is taken away, when I don’t really have to visit Kubota for Kubota’s own good, I will start cracking my eyes open to look at my phone, check the time, and start tapping my foot because time’s a’wastin’, and there’s so much to do.
Maybe if I swap the cats…
“Really, Andy, Kubota was always black and white, not tabby and white. And he was always female. And skittish. And naughty. Really. You just don’t remember because you’ve spent a week looking at whales.”
Maybe.
But those moments of sitting on that couch this week, ignoring chaos that isn’t my chaos, and petting a cat…lovely. Just what I needed.
And yes, that helps. Despite. Anyway.
