My Furry Purry Friend - Part 1
Animals are wonderful. Not only to watch in their natural habitat, but also if you’re lucky enough to have one waiting for you at home, it’s a pretty special experience. I’d like to take this first part of my story to introduce you to my furry son. In Part 2, I’ll delve more into how he truly has helped me with my journey through having non-Hodgkin lymphoma blood cancer.
My boy
I used to live in an apartment complex when I was going to school. One day I went into the leasing office and to my surprise a small black kitten was chilling on the copy machine. Turns out someone had found him wandering around (there were a lot of cats that roamed the complex) and brought him inside. The girls that worked there knew I wanted a cat (and that I could afford one.) And talked me into it. He was acting so calm I figured it would be easy to take care of him. I was partially correct.
Isis
I had always said if I ever got a black cat, I would name him Isis. In the Batman comic books, Catwoman has a black cat with the same name and I’m a big Batman fan so that’s what I named him. My boyfriend at the time mentioned it was a female name and my cat is definitely a male but I didn’t really care and the name stuck. One day I was watching the Batman Animated series cartoon and told Isis he was named after the cat in the show, even showed him the episode, and to this day he watches the show with me whenever I put it on.
It wasn’t all cute though
I think Isis actually has some form of "cat anxiety." I don’t know if that’s even a real thing but sometime after I got him he started acting out. He would hiss at my friends and had behavioral problems. He would still be sweet and I always loved coming home to him waiting but I couldn’t deny something had to change. He would randomly attack my friend's legs.
I think he needed to play more, he was probably partially bored, partially on edge. He was feral when I got him. Some time went on and we moved to another place with another cat. That’s when I learned how much he HATED other animals. He was like Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He wanted to murder any other living animal. It was awful and made having roommates with pets very difficult.
He’s still like that to this day but he has mellowed out quite a bit. Thanks to a friend of mine that lived with us for a while, he had helped train Isis to not think he was the alpha of the house. At least...not as much.
But despite all of this Isis has proven to be somewhat of a hero during my journey with blood cancer.
Connect with others in the Forum: Supportive Pets
Not exactly Batman but…
When I was going through my emotional ups and downs Isis could tell. When he was smaller he would always sleep next to my head. After some time passed he stopped being super cuddly. (I suppose that was his teenage rebellious period I don’t know.)
But one day I remember where I felt so bad and was so upset sobbing so hard my ribs probably rattled, he was there for me. He literally sighed next to me like I was causing him an inconvenience, but he laid down next to my head and napped with me that day. It was so comforting. As the years went on and I had to start chemotherapy, he showed even more of how important our bond was. I’ll save that for part 2!
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