Ever since my sister Bethany moved into an apartment upstairs from mine, she's been asking for a cat. All her life, she's had one; my mom has been a cat lover for as long as I've been alive, and probably longer. Ripping her away from the ones in the home we grew up in was like torture, if you believe the way she was asking. But the building we live in charges extra for apartments with cats, so the decision was a difficult one for her and her roommates.Her birthday is on the Thirteenth, and so her roommate Natalie (my girlfriend) cooked up a plot, and involved me. We planned it for Friday (the best day for everyone involved). Once she got home from work, we packed her up in the car and drove her up Michigan Road. She had no idea where we were going until the moment my girlfriend handed her a litterbox comb. Surprised and disbelieving, it didn't quite sink in that she was getting a cat until we actually pulled into the Humane Society.
The first one she met was the one she fell in love with. We looked at all the others, but her heart was with Elwood from the very beginning.
That's right; Elwood.No, not that one. Elwood is a four-month-old, golden colored kitten. He's a very talkative kitten with the typical kitten energy, able to race back and forth across their apartment at frightening speed.
When he came home, it was obvious that he understood their apartment as his new home. He took to the litterbox like second nature, he began playing with everything that dangled or moved, and he got into every open box he could (and some he couldn't).
My "bliss" assignment was going to dinner with my girlfriend and her family on Saturday night. But I think what I found still more enlightening about bliss and its effects on productivity wasn't my own.
Everyone involved got bliss from the same event: the cat's adoption. But it was for much different reasons. Elwood was mostly happy to have a place to run and a person to pet him (though you could tell how he bonded with Bethany immediately), while Bethany's happiness came from having a soft, squishy, furry companion to watch as he darted about the apartment, attacking feathers and dust. Natalie's was in watching Bethany and Elwood find one another and be happy with finally getting what they wanted.
I'm ordinarily a pretty happy person. In fact, this was one of the toughest assignments for me- not because I couldn't do anything that made me happy, but because I didn't know what I could do that would make me more happy than usual. My "bliss time" was watching my brother perform in a marching band competition, and then dinner with my girlfriend and her parents (wonderful, fun people). Nothing out of the ordinary, really, but very de-stressing and blissful time. But watching the kitten and his new owner really brought me full circle.
(Elwood, October 11, 2008)
(Elwood, October 11, 2008)
2 comments:
I like your thinking ... I am also happy with my life most of the time. I too found it interesting that it was difficult to find something *extra* that was blissful when my life already has so much of that in it. Nothing beats time with the ones you love! :-)
Aww that's so sweet what you guys did!! I relate a good deal to the kitty situation for many reasons, but I have always grown up with a kitty nearby, so I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't have them. (maybe sneak em in anyway) And adopting a kitty from the Humane Society is all around good juju for everyone involved, the kitty, the new owner, etc.
They are very very comforting to have around, they do the silliest things...it's like who needs tv when you could just watch your kitten or cat bat around a milk jug ring around for hours. :)
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