Today I want to introduce my two wonderful fur babies. I have a grey tabby cat, Gandalf and an orange tabby cat, Sweet Potato aka Scarlett. They are both a little over a year old and they are about three of four months apart Potato being the younger of the two. They are both “rescues.” My parents next door neighbors had a friend who had just gotten the grey tabby and was going on dialysis so could no longer keep him because of the machines being placed in her home. It was he either came home with us or went to the shelter so we took him. Sweet potato was found in the gun range parking lot. My dad is friends with someone over there and he wasn’t able to keep her. So it was another case of we take the cat or the cat goes to the shelter. I begged and begged. I couldn’t see a baby kitten going to the shelter. I am beyond grateful to have them both in my life and I have an incredibly deep connection with them both.
Now for a little bit about their personalities and how they each help me through my anxiety.
Gandalf is a very snuggly but independent cat, he likes wearing dog clothes, I know a bit strange and silly for a cat, but he gets anxious and the clothes act like a thunder jacket calming him down. I also use it as a signal that it is bed time because he can be a bit of a wild child at night. He likes to follow me around and his favorite thing to do is protect me from the shower and the toilet and the bathroom in general. The cat is super fascinated by it all. His favorite place to cuddle is up near my face, on my right side, or sometimes he likes laying across my chest. He has two spots on the bed either between William and I (his very favorite) or between me and the wall. Gandalf is good about cuddles because he will cuddle me whether I am in a good mood or not. However, he becomes more cuddly when I am upset and he has a tendency to purr a lot more when I am anxious. His purring helps me relax and fall asleep. Nights when he decides he doesn’t want to sleep in bed are nights I struggle to sleep.
Sweet Potato is super independent and doesn’t like being held or picked up, but she likes to lap surf. She is your typical anti-cuddle, I want my own space type of cat, but on days I am having a lot of anxiety she is up my butt and will not leave me alone. She lays on my lap in bed or on the couch and will purr for hours straight. She even will meow/squeak at me, paw at my hands kind of telling me “Stop being upset. Look I’m cute. Focus on me.” She is truly the therapy animal hero! She does everything in her power to purr away my feelings. She can go several days with the following me around behavior and laying on me till I snap out of it. Once I do snap out of it she goes back to her usual sleeping spots: Top of the closet on clothes I don’t wear, guest room bed, dinning room or living room chair, and will just lay in those spots and ignore me until she thinks I need her again. She will sleep in bed with us but she usually tries to sleep on the corner of the bed or on our feet.
These two bundles of fur have been good therapy for me. They both keep me company all day when I am home alone which helps a lot. I know most people don’t admit to talking out loud to their pets but I do. I watch them do their cat stuff and sometimes they just completely ignore me all day. They are cats. They kind of do that. The magic in both of these cats though is they instantly know when I am not okay. Whether I am super anxious, feeling really low and depressed, if I am physically ill, or in pain, they know and that is when they both are by my side. Gandalf even knows when I am just being needy for attention. Cuddling up with a cat is a really good feeling and just the affection when I feel that crappy and low does wonders. I will always live my life with a cat, they have been nothing but good to me.
I think what is amazing about having any kind of pet is they don’t judge you for what is going on in your life, and they just try to help in the simplest ways.
I would like to give Photo Credit to 