|
Friend  A boy with medical needs meets his Kitty match. I don't think I was ever a good pet owner. The last cats that I had were a couple of "free" kittens I received from a friend who lived on a farm. When you think of kittens you think cute and playful, and when you hear the words free you don't think much beyond that. Sadly these free kittens proved why spaying and neutering are such important actions, as even though I got them at a very young age they had major health problems. I've always been pretty low income so when I took them in to a vet for the first time and heard 120 dollars I was floored. They only got more sick and more expensive after that, and my heart felt worse and worse at my inability to care for them properly. So 10 years later I have a son, a human son, Dax. Dax has some medical issues. The doctors he sees want to put him on the autism spectrum because of his lack of verbal communication. I'm not such a fan of the Western ways of using autism as the modern catchall diagnosis for any child that presents differently or outside of the norm. However for as much as I may fight the label, I know my son is different, I am not in denial, and I see to it that he has the therapies to meet his needs as much as possible. With my son's very limited vocabulary some words have started to pop thru, one of them being "doggie" he started chasing after dogs at coffee shops and on walks. I took him to the excellent Rough and Ready Rodeo event sponsored by Aksarben this year and he basically laid on the back end of a horse and gave it love. It became obvious to me that Dax loves animals. Over the past ten years I had convinced myself that kittens are not so cute, and to be honest youtube has helped with the kitten fix anytime I just want to see something batted about. I was filled with doubt and wrestled with the thought of being a pet owner. We visited NHS three weeks in advance just to be sure that my son wanted a pet. By the way Dax ran for the dog kennel it was obvious that finding a companion for our family was something that was going to happen. I'm still not ready for a dog. So we looked at the kitties. After learning the policies and the pricing of cats and with thinking of my son's needs I narrowed down my search. I knew that our family would best be added to by an older kitty, and one that was declawed already. It was a busy Saturday, on top of being a free cat day when we went into NHS next. I don't want to blame my son's attention span on his medical condition, so we will blame it on his age. To as any 4 year old to wait over 45 minutes is agonizing. In that time I looked thru the glass at the cats that met the criteria I was looking for. I got mildly upset when a couple came up to the window I was in front of with my son and looking at a specific cat and they pulled that exact one out. There is no dibs, it's first come first served I know, but it was still upsetting that they would do that. (ultimately I'm glad they did or else we wouldn't have the wonderful kitty we have). Eventually it was our turn, and our adoption councilor said, "be patient with me, I'm new." In my mind I was worried, I didn't know how much longer my son was going to hold out, and all of the declawed kitties had seemed to of been snatched up in our wait. But there was one, in an auxiliary room by the name of Lightboy left. We hadn't seen Lightboy cause he had been hiding in the room with five other cats, and had no idea what to expect. I took my son and we waited in the meeting room, when the councilor came back she had a startled orange and white cat that kept wandering around the room. We went over his medical history, and why he was surrendered. Nothing too scary there, my son was at the end of his limit, and I figured we wouldn't find a better cat in the time being so Lightboy is who we adopted. While at the check out counter we found out that little guy meowing from the box had had a 10 year old brother, that had previously been adopted, and it made me sad to think of the two of these old man kitties being separated at such an age, and also a little nervous that that would of negatively impacted him. But I remained calm and hopeful. At least three women stopped us in the building with these huge smiles on their faces congratulating us on adopting a cat, and showed such excitement and enthusiasm for US, that I didn't quite know how to respond. Eventually we got home, and took him out of the box. Lightboy explored our apartment just fine, and then I expected him to go run and hide. But he didn't. He laid on the floor in front of us on his back and started to roll around expressing his joy then he came up to us for cuddles. I thought this cat is too good to be true. But over the next few days I continued to be amazed by the love of this cat. The first night home he wanted to sleep in our bed and cuddle. Personally I had never known a cat to do that. But I think the most amazing thing was how he responded to my son.
One of the common things you hear about children on this "autism spectrum" is that they have difficulty expressing their emotions and making attachments yet here is my son and this old man cat running around together playing and laughing right away, and my son going up and laying his head down across the body of a cat and the cat not going anywhere. Lightboy even lets Dax hold his tail as they walk up and down the hall without getting upset. But perhaps the greatest thing to come out of their new bond is that Dax calls Lightboy by name, and when I say, "Lightboy," he responds with, "diddydat." They are a match, and we are a happy family. |
|
|