I’ve had pets my whole life, mainly cats but also a degu, some short lived fish and more hamsters than I care to remember. When I left home and Jack and I moved in together, however, we both had to leave our cats at home and for the first year in our home it was just the two of us, then I became sick. When my health deteriorated to the point of being house and often bed bound, I became very isolated, lonely and this obviously had a huge impact on my mental health. I’d been dying to have a cat for months so after a while the cat living with Jack’s mum, made the move to our house. Initially it was a trial to see if we all got on and how I coped looking after him when Jack was at work. After about twenty minutes of him being here he curled up on the sofa with me and went straight to sleep, and I knew this was going to be just fine.
Jack was barely here for the first twenty four hours of Moo being here. He was rehearsing, gigging and working, the kind of thing that would usually leave me feeling lonely and counting down the minutes to him being home for a while. Not those days. Having Moo there to follow me around, take many naps with me and to talk to (he loves a good gossip) totally changed my mental state. Something that he has continued to do everyday since. On bad days he lies on the bed with me and takes advantage of the extra cuddle time, and on bad pain days he follows me wherever I go and doesn’t leave me until Jack is home again, it’s really quite incredible that he can recognise these days.
Even before we brought Moo into our home, I was hopeful that he would make a difference as my other cat had done before. When I first became sick and bed bound, my cat Norman made the move to live with me at my mum’s house. He mainly lived in my room with me for a while and would lie on or in the bed with me, cuddling into me and almost over night I stopped crying myself to sleep or feeling miserable and alone. He did, and still does whenever I see him at my mum’s house, light up my life.
I will be forever grateful to Norman and Moo for making such a huge impact on the way I feel during what can, and has, at times been a very dark, isolating and heart breaking situation.
Do you have a pet who made being unwell easier? Do you find they make being alone so often, more bearable?
Amie xxx
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