Today is the eighth anniversary of Kevin’s first day in Anderson as a resident. We were talking this week about what a hard week it is in terms of remembrances. Just before Kevin arrived in 2012, my retired dog Meghan crossed the rainbow bridge. The next year, Loretta went to live with her retired family and Inca crossed the rainbow bridge. The next year Sierra crossed the rainbow bridge, and Sable had done so in the meantime. It is no wonder that I really needed something good to happen after Sierra’s departure. Next Wednesday we will celebrate Jade’s homecoming day.
It feels cliche to say that the dogs and cats are like family, and I think there is a difference that I can’t quite describe except through illustration. The former three cats seemed to sense that Kevin needed to be here. When he visited, they paid attention to him and made their own relationships with him. Sierra slept on the back of the desk chair when he was using the computer, and Sable slept in his bed. (Sable never slept in my bed.) When he left, all the cats threw up as if making statements.
When I went to Washington to help him pack, I of course took my dog guide, Loretta. Loretta loved Kevin and once tried to follow him down the hall in a hotel at a convention of the American Council of the Blind when he had visited my room and I sent him to the gift shop to buy some medication for me. When Loretta and I were ready to board the shuttle to go home from Washington, I asked Kevin to hold her while I put the bags on board. When I came back to take her from him, she let out a horrible shriek as if she couldn’t stand for us to be parted.
When he arrived to stay, all three cats fell deeply asleep on my bed. It was as if they were finally satisfied that all this visiting stuff was over and they could stop stressing. Loretta rolled on the floor gleefully, throwing her bone around and having her own personal party.
Our current brood of dog and cats is rather similar in personality to Loretta and the former three kitties–funny how that works. When Ursula feels that all is right with the world, she throws parties with her bone. When the cats are happy, they sleep–and often order us to sleep with them. When they want some reassurance, they throw themselves into our arms. When they are mad, they leave evidence.
Kevin never expected to enjoy the cats. When he first met my cats, he was highly allergic and had severe asthma attacks. He refused to consider rehoming my elderly cats, and we found a good doctor who treated his asthma aggressively. I also began treating the cats with AllerPet weekly and useing AllerSearch products: dust mite spray, carpet treatment, and laundry wash. We ran air purifiers in every room.
Today Kevin does not show cat allergy on his tests and rarely needs an inhaler. He has dubbed our home Chez 3 Kitties and he is a self-declared cat daddy.
I don’t think “the girls” would let him be anything else. My animals wanted him in my life as much as I did.
We wrote our own vows. For the most part they mirrored each other. We both promised to help each other care for our health, value life, and other things. There was one thing that we altered to be specific to each other’s situations.
Kevin has a daughter. My promise to him was to love her and to help to nurture their relationship. Today I not only enjoy seeing their relationship grow but I also treasure my relationship with her.
Kevin also promised to love my animals as his own “because they are”. To some people this might seem like a silly thing to include in a wedding vow. But coming from a person who was, as far as we knew, living with life-long severe allergies, it was deeply meaningful to me. I canoot think anything but that God has honored it by healing those allergies and empowering Kevin to keep that vow as he has been faithful to lavish his love and care on my cats … his cats … our cats. It is much more than feeding them. When we moved into our new home, Sierra was terrified and shook violently. Kevin and I held her in our arms for two hours until her shaking stopped and she seemed to recognize our bed and fall asleep. When our older cats were dying, he stayed awake with me sometimes at night while I made special food bowls for them or held them. When two of our young cats had treatment in the hospital and needed to be monitored at home, he stayed home with them while I went out of town for my own medical treatment. Most of all, he is calm and soothing when they are disturbed.
Today, I celebrate the arrival of the person my cats needed and wanted in their lives. Of course, it was not just my cats who needed and wanted him, but I can allow my cats to benefit from his presence.
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