Sunday, June 17, 2018

father's day

Happy Father's Day!

Father's day must be Oliver's day! He's the only father (that we are aware of) here. I'm always happy to have another reason to celebrate my Oliver!



Pierre still adores his papa. I've seen them cuddling quite a bit, however, anytime Pierre notices that he's being seen by a human he bolts. So, that means I don't have many good pictures of Pierre.


Pierre has taken to enjoying the hanging basket on the cat tree, 
which was one of Willow's favorite places.


I love seeing Pierre inside. He wanders around the apartment with his tail straight in the air talking to himself loudly, just like he used to do in the yard. 

As you've might have noticed, I've not posted much lately. Over the past few months, I've been battling a significant depression, which has zapped most of my energy. Before we moved I started taking an anti-anxiety/depression medication, because the anxiety related to the move was overwhelming. The med helped for that, but it's not been helping with the recent blahs. I believe it was blocking me from connecting with and thus expressing the emotions under the depression. I think has been part of why I've not been able to get a handle on grieving Willow's death. My heart is now coming more online and it's good to feel once again.

Meanwhile, the miniature size of this apartment along with the appearance of the community cats outside is really cranking up the tension in the Fourwhitepaws cattery. Theo has been very mean to Oliver, constantly swatting at him and picking at him. Oliver sees and hears the community cats and gets all fired up about them and has resumed his spraying. Easy going Nahum even decided to get in on the spraying one day. Seeing the delicate balance of the cattery unravel has been really tough. We've taken some more steps to try to help (which I'll write about soon - I promise!) What we really need is to move into a larger space, so the cats are not always in each other's space.

Oliver goes to the vet on Monday to see if he might be a candidate for medications to ease his angst about the outside free roaming cats.

One thing I'm grateful for today, is that I was actually able to have lunch with my father today. It's been quite a few years since that has happened. Living closer to family was a big reason we moved, so having opportunity to meet up like that felt affirming of our decision, even though many other aspects of life-post move have been very difficult.

I hope you all had a lovely Father's Day and are enjoying your summers.