Cats Teaching Me Lessons

I feel triangulated in the Bermuda Triangle of service today.  I know how important it is to be of service but the Ghost of Seaweed Past is always nudging others out of the way and inserting Seaweed at the head of the line.  What is it Frankie of Assisi says? "Better to love than to be loved" or some such crap?  What is Seaweed's reply: "I'm calling bullshit on that!"

Thank god for my friends.

Shorty has been taking me to school on the particulars of my visit home.  I need remedial training on this matter - I need to be reminded that it's about what I can bring to the table, not what I can take away.  People aren't setting the table just for me.  People would rather I go eat at some other table.  I've been working hard to set up a schedule of my own liking, with the kind of results you might expect.  The best thing is to put the word out that I'll be around and then see what transpires.  No one likes to be dictated to.  I'm still trying to reconcile people I want to see with the fact that not all of them are clearing their schedules for my visit and people who don't exactly fire me up seemingly excited that I'm coming.  

Shorty says it will be a good visit.  He's right.

I have a much beloved cat who has reached the end of her journey here on earth.  She has had a couple of serious setbacks in the last month but has rallied just when we thought the end was nigh.  I'm starting to believe in the 9 Lives theory.  But she's old and all of the change has been very hard on her.  Hell, it's been very hard on me.

The thing is she can't talk.  She isn't able to tell us what's going on.  We're trying to read the signs - she doesn't seem to be in any serious pain - but it's so easy to interpret them as we see fit.  Kind of like what I'm doing with my family and friends - it would be convenient to me for you to do this.  It's not pleasant to think of voluntarily asking a vet to inject drugs into her tiny, little collapsing veins but maybe that's the higher calling.

It's funny to think of learning about service from a cat, but this is a pretty special cat.