Kitten Therapy scrapped

My last post was kinda a downer, so I'm here with a bit of happiness today. The subject still has to do with cats, but with good reason or at least an explaination. Sorry if you hate cats, but you could apply what's coming in this post to your favorite species, including humans.

I make a lot of pages about our cats. Yes, I really and truly love, love, love felines of all kinds. I have been drawn to them since I was a knee high to a bullfrog. Yet, there's a whole other reason I make so many pages about our cats: They are therapy in my house. Kitten therapy to be exact. You can't tell our story without telling their story.

To briefly explain:

My husband was born with a Chiari Malformation. It's a rare, complicated thing, but simply put the skull is too small for the brain. As you age, the brain gets skewered by your spinal cord. Think pumpkin on a stake. He's had the condition fixed a few years ago, but not before his brain was damaged and un-skewering the brain doesn't make the brain necessarily happy either. My son has Asperger's Syndrome, so he has his own set of complex issues.

How does this relate to our cats? They are awesome therapy. My son learned to read cat body language and vocal tones before learning to read human's. They provide an awesome amount of comfort and aid in practicing empathy.  Science is finding that cats are as just as good at therapy for ASD kids as dogs (with the exception of dogs traveling better). Let's not forget the practical aspects like teaching responsibility, which we are working on right now.

For my husband, he gets an awful lot of comfort from the kitties, especially when he's in the greatest pain. The frequency at which a cat purrs is also said to speed the healing process and relieve pain as well as other homeopathic remedies. Post surgery he had companions while life marched on without him. I can tell how my hubby is truly feeling by how many cats are doting on him- extra kitty time means he's having a bad day. Cat's creating a kitty shield around him means it's time to call the doctor. The list could go on, but I'll spare you cause I think you have the idea now.

Then there is just the plain fact that cats are interesting, joyful creatures that make us laugh. There are days when we really need that in our lives. After an autistic meltdown or when my husband is too confused to remember where he lives, the cats help us calm ourselves and regroup with either affection, silly antics or just by dropping a toy at our feet. How can you be upset or anxious or worried or sad or mad when a cat is looking at you like you are the greatest thing in the entire world and they need your greatness lavished upon them because they may die at any moment without your undivided attention? The answer to any of life's woes in our house could easily be 'kittens'.

Now for the good stuff. The telling of a our stories through a cat incredibly cute kitten:

Supplies: Blagovesta Gosheva Things I Love About You; Fonts: Trashy Butterfly, The X-Files, Waterfalls 

I knew I wanted to use the photo to make a page. There are a lot of stories I could have chosen from the photo. Yet, the thing that really stood out was the story about my greying hair. (You may not notice it, but I sure do!) This photo changed everything. Yes, the cat is cute and funny on top of my head, but also this photo made me realize that my hair isn't terrible, which was story playing in my mind.

For Cropped Round 1 at Pixels and Comapny | Wild Blueberry Ink: Just a Boy; Pixels & Company: Cropped Round 1 Basket; Fonts: LLRubberGrotesqueOTF; MS Mincho; You Wont Bring Me Down

This page is just about how spoiled this kitten is... not terribly deep. But there will come a time where one of my step children will have a question about their dad and this may answer it. The man loves babies and kittens, which is exactly what I wanted convey... okay, WE love kitten and babies. :)

We may not be off having grand adventures, but our home (aka The Savannah) is never boring (though there are times I wish it were).The kitties have earned more than a footnote in our biographies. If I want to tell meaningful stories, I must then include those creatures who have a grand meaning in our lives.

♥ Carrie

Feline and human comfort

Hello there my interwebz friends! I don't have anything particularly wonderful to post today. Actually, it's been a little sad around my house because our 15 year old cat, Kelda, is not doing so well. In the past month, she started dropping weight while eating like she hadn't been feed in weeks. We began using three times as much cat food kitten chow a week (which severely cuts into the supply budget). Kitten chow is not cheap and we don't really have a store around here where you can get yourself 20lbs of kitten food. She also wants a heated bed most of the day:

She's a tiny cat to begin with, so we didn't think she could stand to loose more weight. Off to the vet we went. Guess what my husband is getting for his birthday? $220 worth of veterinary lab work! The vet had no answers for us other than Kelda has something wrong with her and can't afford to drop any of her 5lbs. We left the vet with no resolution, some medication to make her a bit more comfortable, and considerably less money in our wallet.

Kelda is still social, still bossy, but still not completely herself. She isn't playing at all, she doesn't want the other cats near her and she is still starving. The heartbreaking part is you can see she wants to play, wants to interact with her feline companions, but isn't feeling well enough. After a week, it's clear the medication isn't really helping much.

We are in kitty comfort mode. Kelda is getting extra treats, extra wet food, and extra love. I'm taking a lot of photos of Kelda and thinking about all the stories I have tell about her. Here are some of the stories already told (some are old, please forgive them... and since these are via flickr, you can click the images to see the credits):

This is why we do what we do, right? We keep memories. It's comforting for me to know that no matter what happens with Kelda, I'll always have a piece of her on my pages. The good, the bad, the hilarious. I have more stories to tell, like how she decided when I was pregnant with my son that she would pretend to be a bird and my belly was her egg, and some I have written down in random places, for which I'm glad.

And I think I'll be using Story Coach to collect the rest.  I'll share more on that in a future post. Until then...

♥ Carrie