Lessons from Our New Kitten

Beside being the most adorable entertainment you could possibly imagine (seriously, she is constantly tumbling!) our kitten has illustrated some important life lessons.

First, don't give a shit if someone dislikes you. That's clearly their problem, not yours! Try a bit to win them over and then go have fun without them. Peut-être has not had a warm reception from Maybe. It took him a long time to stop hissing and warm up to her (although I would still only call it lukewarm), but even when he was acting his worst, hissing and swatting, she'd sidle up to him or pounce on his tail, trying to make friends. Of course it really just instigated a huge cat freak out, but she was always shockingly unfazed. She'd watch it unfold, receive her smack, and then gallop off to spend 20 minutes in ecstasy playing with a ribbon or a bug or a button or a shadow. She was so confident that his dislike could not possibly have anything to do with her that she eventually won him over.

It's not worth it to feel sorry for yourself. Focus on the good stuff. We discovered that Peut-être's front paw was infected this weekend because she's been licking her wounds too much. The vet prescribed her penicillin and...a neck cone to wear for a week. This is the smallest size they make, but it's still awfully heavy for a kitten. At first she alternated between dragging it around face down on the floor and walking everywhere backward, though now she can do sort of a camel style lope across the room because every other step the bottom edge bounces off the floor. It keeps her from playing, it's uncomfortable, and very unwieldy. Needless to say, she was not very happy with it. However, she can't help being happy. You snuggle up to her, and she still just purrs and purrs. Sure, one part of her life is not going all that great right now, but she's still able to find big moments of contentment.

I'm sure there's lots to be said about her ability to see everything as a game or her constant activity as motivation to work out more, but I'm going to leave it at these two big ones. I want to learn from her example to worry less about what people think and to stop feeling sorry for myself when one part of my life is not going my way.