Lesson in cats #342

I started out on this kitty journey knowing next to nothing about cats. Every little thing Kingsley has done has felt like the coolest thing to me, and when I share that with people I discover much of what he does is what all cats do. At the zoo, I even discovered that the tigers sleep about 20 hours a day; now I know that Kingsley is just sleeping for strength.

So more about this naiveté (pronounced with a long "A" sound at the end). As suggested by the breeder and multiple veterinarians, we decided to declaw Kingsley because he is a house cat, more specifically an apartment cat, which means he really couldn't even run in the backyard if he wanted to. The procedure went so well, there was almost no recovery time, and his white little mitts were adorable and so much fun to play with. Then we discovered the doctor missed one of his claws during the surgery, so he had to go in for another shortly after. Then one of his paws started to bleed and it didn't stop for a few weeks. We found out that two of his paws were growing back and the surgery was much more invasive this time. His paw looked mangled after the surgery and it was tough for me to look at and watch him hop around on.

With his bleeding paw and then surgery, he had to wear a cone for a month and a half. I woke up several times in the night in a panic hoping he hadn't gotten out of his cone. We also woke up several times because he would use our head as a spring board to jump on the windowsill behind us, often times just to fall off because his cone was in the way. It was tough to see him try to eat and drink, not to mention get comfy in that thing. We recently discovered that another one of his paws is growing back, but alas, it is not bleeding and it isn't bothering him so we are going to leave it be for as long as we can.

^ We tried to take the cone off for a bit and use a sock but it drove him crazy. 

The other day when we were both gone, Jeff returned home to find that Kingsley had gotten out of his cone and licked his scabs off to reveal a healed paw! I'm so glad King decided to take care of business himself. I am so happy to see him peacefully sleep again, and not to mention he tears through the house, hunts us, jumps all over the place, and is so happy to be able to clean his paws again and rub his little face with them. 

Through this I learned that having a pet can be so heart breaking. (I know, where have I been right?) I really had no idea that there was a possibility of claws growing back (though it happens very rarely).  It was so hard for me to see him be so uncomfortable and confused for so long, but he still loves us so much. I may still not like the term "fur baby," but what can I say? He is definitely our baby. 

Homeward Bound.

A few nights ago, I had a dream that I was driving with my friends on a road trip with no destination. I'm quite sure the wind was even running perfectly through my hair. While driving, I came to the realization that I was not wearing any shoes, that I was not wearing a bra, and that I forgot my deodorant. Instead of being the wild and free girl those details entail, we quickly found a Walmart and I was standing in the aisle embarrassed to pick out deodorant in front of my friend because I wear Old Spice....

Reality met my dream. It found my inner curiosity and longing for a free spirit and told it to go home. It made me wonder. Was it the movies that made us think driving in the car on a long stretch of highway is so romantic? Or that doing a cartwheel in the middle of a quiet street at night makes us feel free and washes all our cares away? I'm not trying to be the pessimistic realist here, because trust me, I'm middle ground with this one. I desperately want all those things to be the best medicine. And I think they are for some people, and even for me at times. But I think my wanderlust is drowned out by my longing to be grounded. To go home to my little living room, which is attached to my even littler kitchen, sparkling clean, with a chocolate bar always waiting in the cupboard above the sink, with my cat purring and husband waiting to light up and say, "hi baby!"