Feline family or human family or both?
I have three wonderful sons who are the joys of my life but they are all in their early to mid-twenties and busy with their own lives. They do not live with me. Two of them got married recently so two wonderful daughters-in-law have been added to our family. Early next year, we will be adding a baby to the group and I will be a grandmother of a real person. Currently, I am been the grandmother to several clever and cute four-legged critters. I love them all. This being said, I am alone within the context of my everyday life. I have my hobbies and my vices and many good friends, however, there are days, often my days off from work, where the aloneness can become oppressive. I use some of the solitude and quiet on my days off to recover from crazy-busy, swelteringly hot shifts at work but, after awhile, I begin to walk around my apartment looking for something or someone to fill a void.
In the midst of one stretch of hot weather and, before another one commenced, I had the good fortune, recently, to have two days off from work in a row. The weather was temperate enough to turn off the AC and open all the windows and the door to the balcony. Summer air blew refreshed an apartment which had been entombed for several weeks within somewhat functioning, sterile air-conditioning. I live on the second floor of a fourplex. If I open the door to the balcony, my cats can go out on my balcony and climb across an eave-type appliance over the front door and get to the neighbor's balcony. To them, it is a jungle climb and they love it. They love it when the balcony door is open and they come in and out of "our" apartment at their leisure.
When doors are open, the world is their oyster and they move freely within it. On Tuesday mid- morning, I dozed briefly. When I awoke, I went to check on my three cats who had had the door open to their jungle for several hours. None of them were out on my balcony nor were they across the way at the neighbor's. Simon and Mr. White, in particular, like to go over to the neighbor's balcony and stare in their windows. Thankfully, the neighbors are at work during day and this deviant behavior goes unnoticed by anyone except for myself.
I started to walk around my apartment to ascertain the location of my cats and found Mimi, my little girl cat, sleeping on my bed. I had not noticed that she was right next to me when I got off the bed but she is a chummy, little thing and often sleeps right next to me on the pillow. Then, I walked through the bathroom into the back bedroom. Mr. White was sleeping in the full sun of the open, Eastern-facing window. When it is too hot outside which is often in the summer around here in Kansas City, I keep that window closed and the mini-blinds shut all the way to keep the sun out. Tuesday, I did not need to do that. Simon, clever cat that he is, had knocked over a tall, brown, cloth-sided, empty, dirty clothes hamper that has never been used as such and he was sleeping inside of that. Brown is a good color for Simon. It makes his cream-colored fur and stripes pop.
My sons are grown and on their own but they are my family however widely dispersed. My home with them is in my heart. They are my heart. My cats make themselves at home here in my apartment as they should. This is their home and this is our everyday life. I come home to them at the end of the day and I look forward to it and their companionship. Simon and Mr. White are always waiting at the door when I open it. Mimi is often off busy during her own thing but, in human parlance, she is still a toddler albeit a highly-functioning, self-sufficient one. Whether four-legged and feline or two-legged and human, it does not matter because we are all in this together in some way or another.
In the midst of one stretch of hot weather and, before another one commenced, I had the good fortune, recently, to have two days off from work in a row. The weather was temperate enough to turn off the AC and open all the windows and the door to the balcony. Summer air blew refreshed an apartment which had been entombed for several weeks within somewhat functioning, sterile air-conditioning. I live on the second floor of a fourplex. If I open the door to the balcony, my cats can go out on my balcony and climb across an eave-type appliance over the front door and get to the neighbor's balcony. To them, it is a jungle climb and they love it. They love it when the balcony door is open and they come in and out of "our" apartment at their leisure.
When doors are open, the world is their oyster and they move freely within it. On Tuesday mid- morning, I dozed briefly. When I awoke, I went to check on my three cats who had had the door open to their jungle for several hours. None of them were out on my balcony nor were they across the way at the neighbor's. Simon and Mr. White, in particular, like to go over to the neighbor's balcony and stare in their windows. Thankfully, the neighbors are at work during day and this deviant behavior goes unnoticed by anyone except for myself.
I started to walk around my apartment to ascertain the location of my cats and found Mimi, my little girl cat, sleeping on my bed. I had not noticed that she was right next to me when I got off the bed but she is a chummy, little thing and often sleeps right next to me on the pillow. Then, I walked through the bathroom into the back bedroom. Mr. White was sleeping in the full sun of the open, Eastern-facing window. When it is too hot outside which is often in the summer around here in Kansas City, I keep that window closed and the mini-blinds shut all the way to keep the sun out. Tuesday, I did not need to do that. Simon, clever cat that he is, had knocked over a tall, brown, cloth-sided, empty, dirty clothes hamper that has never been used as such and he was sleeping inside of that. Brown is a good color for Simon. It makes his cream-colored fur and stripes pop.
My sons are grown and on their own but they are my family however widely dispersed. My home with them is in my heart. They are my heart. My cats make themselves at home here in my apartment as they should. This is their home and this is our everyday life. I come home to them at the end of the day and I look forward to it and their companionship. Simon and Mr. White are always waiting at the door when I open it. Mimi is often off busy during her own thing but, in human parlance, she is still a toddler albeit a highly-functioning, self-sufficient one. Whether four-legged and feline or two-legged and human, it does not matter because we are all in this together in some way or another.
Comments
Post a Comment