Checking in (once again)

It seems to be that every post I write at the moment starts with “Sorry I’ve been away for so long”. My blogging commitment keeps getting disrupted by other commitments, and those other things? They’re just far more important!

You see, little Jensen, our new kitten, has been very ill. He’s been sleeping nearly every hour of the day, had giant facial abscesses, got his eyes gooped up with yucky stuff, and got so thin that he was just a tiny bag of bones. He stopped purring, which terrified me more than anything else. For a while, knowing that kittens fail so fast and so suddenly, I wasn’t sure if he’d make it.

So followed a week of injections, oral antibiotics, eye drops, and washing him with warm water or baby wipes so that he stopped smelling like Smelly Cat! It was tiring, not least because even when I wasn’t doing much I was holding my mind permanently tense. Sometimes, whilst trying so furiously to keep my thoughts off the fact Jensen may not make it, and whilst concentrating so studiously on doing everything I could to make him better, I’d just feel like everything was in some snarled up traffic jam in my head, banging together but getting nowhere. I was cranky, and stressed, and oh so very worried.

His favourite spot!

Thankfully, he’s taken a turn for the better. You can see his little slanty eyes again as the swelling has receded, and he’s playing. Every tiny incidence of kitten behaviour is being celebrated like it’s the most remarkable thing – because in its way, it is. He hasn’t played until now, and when I see him capture his own tail I know that this little addition to our family is much more likely to be here to stay.

Now for the soppy bit. Having a kitten, nursing him back to health, is an amazing feeling – I feel like a mother, and the relationship that Andy and I have feels stronger than ever. Which is impressive, because I already feel more about this man that I’ve felt about anyone before. Now, though, in addition to our relationship, we’re a family. It’s wonderful! All in all, the cat has made my life so much better already, and we’re only a week in!