They bring out the best in us

I read a very lovely NYTimes article about lessons we can learn from our pets that can be applied to relationships... lessons like always greeting one's spouse with happiness, forgiving and forgetting, etc..... all very true and important lessons. Goodness knows that our kitties are always at the door when we come home at the end of the day... meowing and happy to see us.

It made me think about the many wonderful years that we've enjoyed with our little kitties.

But they weren't all wonderful.

That first year with Puck and Ty... we got them when they both were tiny babies... they were such good friends and brought us so much joy and grief.... When Katherine put up the fake Christmas tree, I don't know how many times Ty would climb up those branches and try to knock the ornaments off... how many mornings we woke up to find half of the tree ornaments had been removed in the night. I thought that we certainly were doomed to a life of ruined Christmas ornaments and mangled trees.

Then there was Puck... who was so little when she lost her mom that she never learned to clean properly. We've had so many problems with litter boxes with her... there was that year in Iowa when Puck decided not to use the litter box to poop... and she was having bowel problems. I don't know how many days I came home to messes in the apartment... I spent so much time moving the litter box to try a new location and try a new litter brand and scrubbing the carpet and crying because I thought we were doomed to a lifetime of messes.

And then the at least 3 year period in Iowa when Ty and Dory were enemies... I spent many nights in the spare room on the futon so that Ty could sleep with Katherine and have some peace from being antagonized by Dory... when we went away, poor Ty was kept in our bedroom alone because if we weren't around she was too scared to use the litter box because Dory would attack her...

It's funny how you forget the bad times. I have to think very hard to remember what it was like when I would be crying to Katherine when Ty was freaked out by Dory and afraid to come on the floor.... "Is it ever going to get better.... I don't know what to do."

Now, when the two of us are on the couch at night, surrounded by the little ladies sleeping, it's hard to remember. And when I wake up in the morning to find all of the kitties sleeping on the bed, I forget that this scenario was once an impossible dream.

I guess that's what I've learned from having these little kitties in my life. We all need love and have our hard times.

I clean Puck's bum and cleaned up her poop for a year. But when I was lonely for two years, she spent every evening on my lap on the futon with her little paws around my neck.

Ty is the most neurotic little thing and has ruined our leather chair and still drives us crazy. But she spent that first year sleeping curled up around Katherine's head and cleaned Katherine's face and ears every morning... and when Katherine comes home at the end of the day, Ty hops onto her lap and immediately starts kneading. And when Katherine or I are upset and crying, Ty knows and comes over to check on us.

Dory still tries to scare Ty occasionally. But every morning she comes and cuddles under the blankets in bed with us. And she loves when we're freshly showered and she loves to rub against our feet if they're super smelly and stinky. She's a conundrum.

We all need love. When we're at our best and when we're at our worst. Pets and people. It seems like it's harder to find people who are able to take that on.

Pets do it naturally.