Some days nothing comforts a hurting heart quite like kitty hugs and puppy dog kisses. I enjoy these every day, but some days they’re so much more meaningful than others. Both yesterday and today among the more meaningful variety.
Earlier today over in Marriage I wrote about what love is and how Wayne’s love is so precious to me during hard times. But so is the love Murphy, Tabby, and Mr. Meow give me.
The hard times I’m referring to is the bad news I received last night about my mom. My sister called to inform me she was admitted to the hospital after a worse than normal coughing spell had her feeling very wrong. X-rays and a CT scan revealed her right lung is not only fully encapsulated but has nodules on it they need to biopsy because they suspect it’s metastatic cancer.
Wayne was working late so he wasn’t home to comfort me right then. But the animals were. Even before my tears fell Mr. Meow sensed my psychic mood had shifted. He moved from one side of the back of the couch to the one closer to me.
When Murph and Tabby heard me crying, Tab came to sit in my lap and Murph came to sit right beside me. Unlike he normally would, Mr. Meow didn’t growl at Tabby for being too close to him and I at the same time. He left her alone, content for the time being to purr next to my ear while I petted both Murph and Tabby.
Suddenly I realized I was literally surrounded by love. I was duly humbled in that moment and my grief was slightly assuaged.
When Wayne finally came home and the bunch of us trooped up to the big bed for snuggle buggle bedtime, my heart started hurting anew. Depending on what lies ahead, there’s a very good chance I’ll have to leave my fur-kids behind for a time while I tend to my mom’s affairs.
The impact of that is crushing. Wayne believes these guys give us our energy, and so do I. Who I am is because of what they make me. When I’m separated from that, I lose my strength.
Again, seeming to sense not only my pain but my thoughts, here they came. Kitty to snuggle next to me with his back legs wrapped around my arm in that funny hug he does. Murph kissed away the tears on my cheeks. And Tabby pressed herself tight as she could against my legs.
Kitty hugs and puppy dog kisses. They don’t mend my hurting heart, but they sure do soothe it.
Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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