I've somehow missed not managed to notice that there was a contest going on over at the Hive Pets community. The contest is entitled "How do you show love to your pet? This is just so wholesome and I love my little boy so much that there's no chance of me missing out on this.
I'll try not to recycle the content of my post The story of Leopold where I told his story. I'll do my best to keep this post on the topic at hand and if you want to read his full story you can check out that post before or after reading this one.
1. Adopting him from the shelter
This is honestly the best way I can think of to show your love for a pet. We had Leo for a year as foster parents before adopting him. We were only supposed to have him for a couple of weeks as a way to help out at the shelter. He was a really scared cat so it was crucial that he got to be around humans in a quiet home.
We saw some good development in him so we talked to the shelter and decided that we were going to have him a while longer. We were even allowed to foster him for as long as we wanted, and so we did!
Eventually we grew so attached to the little man that it was impossible for us to give him back. I don't think I would have ever forgiven myself if we did. We ended up loving this little guy so much that we simply had to adopt him. Now he lives here with us in his forever home.
2. Time and tatience
With a cat like my Leo being patient has gone a long way in being able to show him love. As mentioned in the post about his story he is scared. He's always been scared. That's just the way he is and that's how we've come to like and accept him. Part of showing our love to him is to accept this. Scared or lively he's our little man.
Scared as he is it's almost impossible for us to pet him on our terms. It has to be on his terms. If we approach him he'll run. I don't think it's because he thinks we're coming at him with ill intent. He just doesn't know. However if we sit down on the couch or lie down on the bed he might eventually jump up for some cuddles. When we sit still he knows what to expect from us and he relaxes. We can pet him and the purrs come out.
A scared cat like Leo needs a lot of patience. We've just come to accept that. We don't expect anything from him and let him go about his day at his own terms. He's slowly warming up to us and even today, two years after taking him in, we're still seeing improvement every day. I think he's starting to understand that we only wish him well. That we love him. And we have time and patience to thank for that.
3. Candy
Leo loves candy and we love doing things that Leo love. It's a mutual thing. Candy never fails. If he's sad or scared just rattle the candy bag and he'll forget everything about it. He'll come running.
It's so strange to see a cat who's normally so afraid of everything, even the tiniest noise, come running through heaven and hell for some candy. It's like a split personality completely over. Nothing matters but the candy.
Candy has been one of the ways we've been managing to show him som love. Candy coupled with time and patience.
We also have a secondary use of candy which is exercise. Leo is an inside cat, for several reasons I'm not gonna touch on here, and lately he's been getting a little chonky. We've been putting candy in challenging to get to places and even throw them across the room in containers. He'll go running, climbing or do whatever necessary to get the piece og candy. That way we get to have some fun by seeing him go crazy across the room and he gets to exercise while doing what he loves; eating candy.
4. Cuddles
The obvious one. It's the most obvious and typical way to show love to your pet but it can't go unmentioned. Cuddles is simply the best. We've been wanting to love and cuddle him since the day we got him but it's taken a lot of time to get him used to us. It took a couple of weeks for us to be able to pet him properly, and again patience played a role. These days we can cuddle him almost nonstop.
As part of my morning routine I always sit down in the couch for 10-15 minutes. After a minute or so Leo will jump up, sniff my nose and lie down for some cuddles. We do this every day, unless I've overslept, and I think it's an important part of the day for the both of us. I get to relax with my best buddy before going off to work and he gets some cuddles.
What's great is that this ritual has evolved. Normally I would have to sit for a while before he came up into the couch but now it's almost instantly after I sit down. Earlier he would lie in his little house until I was in place before coming out. Lately he's started to jump out of his house as soon as I enter the room to show that he's ready. Sometimes, although rarely, he'll even jump up on the couch before I sit down myself. He's so eager.
This morning ritual is an important part of my day and one of my favorite ways to show my love to him.
So that's how I show my love to my little Leo. I've just found out about this contest but will start paying attention to the #lovemypets tag from now and until the 28th of February. If you haven't already you should check out the original post detailing the contest. If you check up on the tag I mentioned or sift through the comments of that post you can read all of the lovely entries that's already in or will be coming in over the next 11 days.
I encourage everyone who has a pet to join in!
PS! None of these images are really showing me showing love to him. We're not able to hold him so I don't have any pictures like that. I was struggling to convert my videos of him eating candy or us cuddling him to gifs that were small enough for upload.
All pictures in this post are taken by me.
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